immeasurably more

with Jesus

2012-01-28T21:26:00.001-05:00

our grandmother royal stepped into heaven this afternoon. we are so thankful for the promise that tonight she has a new body, she is seeing Jesus as He tells her how proud He is of her, and that all who love her will see her again. we have spent time tonight trying to imagine what she is seeing, hearing, feeling, and it is just impossible. God, You're so faithful and GOOD.

also incredibly thankful that we got to visit her just a few weeks ago at her nursing home, on new year's day. LM observed so sweetly and carefully.

thank you for praying with us. my precious parents have been at the hospice center in NC with my grandparents this week. they are very exhausted. please pray for endurance for all of us as we travel.

thank you, friends. love you all.

december instagrams - part 2

2012-01-17T15:28:00.007-05:00

1 - the night before christmas eve, we pretended it was bedtime, got in pi's, sang songs and did our Bible story, and then we surprised the kiddos by piling them into the car for tacky lights. LM loved it so much, but she fell asleep not too far into the tour. :)

2 - she perked right up for our last stop!

3 - she was in HEAVEN. it was hard for her to choose, but she picked sprinkles for herself and snowman for silas.

4 - those are some pretty doughnuts.

1 - that's how you get it done. he took care of krispy kreme business.

2 - sweet girl & her favorite man

3 - icing face!

4 - she was in total awe of the doughnuts being drenched in glaze.

1 - cuddles after coming inside from the pouring rain

2 - ornaments above our kitchen table - made our meals so cheery kisses for katie

3 - this book kept me captivated all month. she is amazing!!

4 - decorating a cinnamon ornament for her teacher

1 - grandma & grandpa came over christmas eve for us to celebrate. silas LOVES clint's daddy.

2 - linzer cookies are ckb's favorite. they remind us of austria.

3 - silas breaking in his sister's new magna doodle

4 - lily mae is obsessed. OBSESSED with these 3 princess barbies grandma & grandpa gave her. she insisted on sleeping with them christmas eve. so they joined us on the living room floor for our sleepover.

1 - beautiful girly posing in front of the tree

2 - mantel magic

3 - kitchen windowsill - i love those blocks...a really good find from cracker barrel years ago ;)

4 - pastor phil reading to the kiddos on christmas morning. one of the absolute sweetest hours of worship my heart has ever experienced.

1 - lily mae was sad to see this get packed up after christmas was all over.

2 & 3 - daddy and his silly monkeys

4 - my view from my spot at the kitchen table on christmas night. after a sleepy, sweet day of presents and fun and laughter and cuddles, we FEASTED and went to bed so we could get up and drive to the beach the next day...

december instagrams - part 1

2012-01-11T18:07:00.011-05:00

is anybody still here with me ?? i didn't feel too motivated to blog at all in december - obviously. :) the first half of the month, we were busy with preschool and church events and doing lots of our advent traditions. then at the beginning of Christmas week, ckb had hernia surgery, which launched us into 2 awesome weeks of family downtime. he thought he'd be back on his feet pretty quick, but instead he got an unexpected week off, and then his normal week off between Christmas and new year's day. so we spent two heavenly weeks relaxing, celebrating with our families, eating, and soaking up the Son and the star of Christmas.

oh and i got an iphone at the beginning of the month! it was an early present and i'm already wondering how i ever managed without it. :) it came to me at the perfect time, making it really easy to capture lots of our Christmas happenings. so here we go...

1 - so excited for her preschool Christmas program

2 - her fan club :)

3 - silly girl...i'm not sure what she's doing with her hands

4 - at her special lunch afterward, birdie gave her her own nativity set. she LOVED it.

1 - funny boy

2 - sunday school party -- silas kept mr. aaron busy the whole night.

3 - peanut butter/nutella swirl cookies. those are some yummy little devils.

4 - some Christmas happiness on our front door

1 - proud of the stocking she made at school

2 - me & my buckeyes assistant

3 - our favorite part of every day, when LM picked an ornament and we talked about one of Jesus' many names. she soaked up so much truth throughout the month. definitely a permanent tradition!

4 - eating sugar cookies quicker than we could get them decorated

1 - a little bit of Christmas in LM and S's room

2 - sweeeeet snuggles - my newest favorite picture of them

3 - 2 cute boys

4 - birthday party for Jesus in kids' worship

1 - we adore mrs. marybeth

2 - i got to come along for her class's birthday party for Jesus...

3 - ...and silas came too...

4 - ...and birdie came too! she surprised LM. :)

1- working together making a snowman

2 - my job was storytime.

3 - silas got busy making himself at home in her classroom.

4 - cupcakes :)

1 - thank you kroger

2 - advent calendar and christmas aprons

3 - growing collection of books we save for december

4 - popsicle stick trees that she made for family :)

1 - date night!!

2 - when i see old ornaments for cheap, i grab 'em. they are so so pretty.

3 - LM's memory verse for the month

4 - cracker barrel with the beasleys -- silas got down to business with some jelly packets.

1 - Joyous Christmas Morning at church - first time ever in my life that i finally sang in the same choir with my parents!

2 - ugly hospital light -- passing time before they took him back for surgery.

3 - silas got to have a lot of birdie time that week! birdie's got an iphone too, so she sent me lots of pics of what our littles were up to.

4 - spoiling ckb ROTTEN.

1 - angel ornament made by little miss

2 - some downtime at the farm

3 - i think a hardcore missions lesson was happening here ;)

4 - a little corner of cheer in our kitchen

blogging neglect

2011-11-10T15:13:00.002-05:00

yall, i'm in a major blogging rut. God has nudged me recently and let me know that i need to be giving my husband and kiddos all my attention. and i'm so glad i'm listening to Him, because even though fixing food and picking up toys and reading books and singing songs and helping with puzzles and changing diapers and laundry and scrubbing all take a lot of my energy (most days, ALL of my energy), investing time into these 3 people gives me tons of joy and focus and purpose. lots of things have been neglected recently...emails, photo uploading and printing, and blogging. i'd just really rather play with LM & S than sit in front of the screen. sorry. :( i'm trying to find a little balance. and since i'm feeling zero blog inspiration, this pitiful list is all i can sputter out today.

-listening to john mark mcmillan.

-feeling thankful for a happier, more comfortable Big Rig with newly-installed tubes. it's been 3 weeks of NO ear infections, fevers, or doctor visits. everyone said those things were miraculous, and i'm starting to be a believer.

-planning a weekend for girls & their mamas at church. praying for meaningful memories and relationship-building.

-thinking about how much i don't want to drive to the library today, but books are due.

-feeling giddy about finding a cute cubby shelf at my favorite thrifting spot. it's being turned into a dollhouse for LM. :)

-smiling about these boots she's also getting for Christmas from birdie and pop. don't tell her all our secrets!

-enjoying the adorable red picnic table we saw in someone's yard last month. he had a for sale sign out, and we only had to part with $20 to take the beautiful thing home. it's so perfect...the color, the size...it could be our kitchen table if we needed it to be. it's been majorly broken in by us: lunch picnics for LM & S, a late-night supper date that my man prepared for us, and some hot fall drink sipping. the weather has been so perfect for it.

-liking this book:

-dreaming about the glorious 2 days ckb and i got to spend together last week. we road tripped to charlotte to see DC*B and every minute of it was heavenly. we talked, ate, worshiped, slept hard, and shopped. i loved getting to focus on him uninterrupted.

-watching LM play with her new favorite thing, a perfect new lite brite that cost a dollar (i'm telling you, this yard sale thing is a sickness for me).

-getting excited about thanksgiving! :)

-avoiding laundry folding.

-wishing for a really good book to read.

-needing a big chunk of time to work on some projects.

-wondering what the weird smell in our living room is. i think it's a little bit of spilled milk, but i can't find it and no one else can smell it and it's driving me crazy.

-missing mae.

-loving these ridiculously amazing pictures (part 1, part 2). i want to re-live this day so bad!! it was so so full of beauty and love.

-cuddling up in the evenings with my man on the sofa, both of us falling asleep watching our favorite shows because these last couple weeks have been full of busy-ness. he's so comfy...he makes me drift right off.

-looking ahead to adding several more members to our family in the spring. we will treasure and take care of them, they'll contribute to the family, but they won't be welcome in the house. any guesses? :)

-wanting some more tractor time all by myself...3 doses of it in the last few weeks, and i loooove it. i get to pray and think with no interruptions, smell the grass, and pay attention to our pretty yard. but i don't think i'll be getting any more of it until spring. boo.

-craving another bonfire. my man and i have done a lot of yard work in the past month, and all the cut-up branches made a great excuse for a fire. LM thought she'd died and gone to heaven when she got to stay up past bedtime, play with sticks, and eat s'mores.

-making a lot of cinnamon swirl bread and pumpkin pancakes. i love fall.

-adoring these 2:

on my mind

2011-09-28T09:19:00.001-04:00

-our kiddos are playing so sweetly and happily together these days. reading books, building block towers, racing cars up a ramp ckb made...i love to watch them rejoice in having a playmate. i'm so proud of lily mae who seriously never ever acts rude of selfish with her brother.

-this lovely little lady is loving preschool. she was so thrilled to come home one day last week with this gold badge.

-on sunday we had such a fun, rich, full, blessed experience packing meals for feed my starving children. that was the fastest 2 hours i've ever spent doing one thing...and they were really right about it being the most fun i've ever had in a hair net. :) we can send checks to our favorite organizations, we can buy gifts from a charity catalog, but it was so awesome to physically scoop the soy and veggies that will feed hungry tummies somewhere in the world where a starving child waits to eat. i lied in bed last night and was just so overwhelmed that God has it in His power to feed every hungry human being on this planet, all on His own without any help from us. yet He calls us and beckons us to be a part of the solution -- that is super super humbling.

-saturday was mae's bachelorette party and oh glory be did we have some fun. we ate like little pigs but i think by the end of the night every single calorie had been spent on laughing HARD. mae got a TON of cute lingerie, we played some naughty games, we painted cans for their getaway truck, and we signed her wedding shoes. and then we went out and engaged in some serious bachelorette mischief. :)

mae has amazing friends. and it is sooo sweet to see it. my darling sister spent most of her middle school and a couple of her high school years with really bratty girls who called themselves her friends but acted the opposite. mama and i've had so many sad conversations wondering why such a sweet girl just could not find decent friends. that's not in any way pleasant to witness as a mom or big sister, and i know it was really agonizing for mae. well God got rid of all that nonsense and gifted her with selfless, FUN, crazy, Godly, kind friends who are just perfect for mae, and i'm so so thankful she had them throughout her years at college and now she's got them as she moves into this new phase. girlies, i am so grateful for yall and can't wait to party with yall again this weekend!! (and now i know you all read this blog!) ;)

-i have so much i feel like i should blog about (trying to get over that). silas' birthday was more than 3 months ago...yet no party pics have shown up here yet. we've done a playroom reorganization, beach trips, apple picking, and tons of other things that the blog has never seen. i'll try to get to that soon.

-i've got some new and some old fall traditions i want to tick off our list, and projects i want to get done, but most of my brain space and creative energy and free weekend time has been spent on M & P's wedding. i am so excited to see all of mae, birdie's, and daddy's work come together this weekend, and i can't wait to watch those 2 exchange vows. how did it get here so fast?! we're leaving in 8 hours and i am itching to get down there and start the party!!

it's almost october!! happy fall yall!! :)

milestone

2011-09-19T19:52:00.019-04:00

we made some precious memories celebrating the start of preschool for our little girly. the night before, we had a simple pizza party with birdie & pop & mae. she ate cupcakes, showed off her first day of school outfit, and listened to the prayers of her family envelop her with love and encouragement.

after they left, the 4 of us drove to the parking lot and had a little prayer time parked in the car. we prayed for her teacher, her friends, and for her spirit to be a happy influence in her classroom. i think this is a tradition that will stick. i loved intentionally inviting Him to her school year, asking for His blessing, expecting to see Him work through her.

back at home we read the kissing hand, sang songs, prayed some more, and got tucked in. she bounced out of bed the next morning and could not wait to get to school. chocolate chip pancakes made it a little easier for her to be patient. :) we talked about the verse we chose to pray over her this year, and we got her dressed, marked her height, and headed out the door.

her smile would not budge all the way there, as she walked through the church doors, hugged her pal mrs. angela, and power walked to her classroom. she lit up when she saw mrs. marybeth, and we had to force her to kiss and hug us!

she was a chatty little thing from the moment i picked her up, but she managed to save some information for when we met daddy for a little celebration lunch at mcallisters. all afternoon, she gave me more little nuggets of her day...she talked about her new friends, calendar helpers and line leaders, a bean bag song, snack time, sidewalk chalk, and storytime about God.

what a priceless, wonderful stage of life this little lady is in! so thankful every second to be her mama.

she's ready

2011-09-12T08:26:00.001-04:00

-the supplies have been purchased and left in her classroom.

crayons, markers, glue sticks, wipes, tissues, scissors, pencils...

-almost all the papers have been turned in.

-first co-op day has been signed up for.

-the teacher has been met.

and lily mae is in LOVE and can't quit chatting about her. she cried so hard when it was time to leave...sweet mrs. marybeth said that's a very good sign and she's never had a child cry because it was time to go. i'm telling you, she is excited. then mrs. marybeth saw us at the end of the morning at church yesterday and asked if she could go with us to pick LM up. she was so bashful and sweet when she saw her teacher, and they got to chat for a couple minutes.

-we've been praying for LM, for her teacher, for her classmates.

-her bag is packed.

-now it's time for a little family *preschool pizza party* tonight and a SLEW of traditions...i think i went overboard, but i've just heard so many great ideas and i can't choose. :) so we will be celebrating the night before, the morning of, the afternoon after. it's more fun that way!

our girl is so sweet, so smart, so lovely. thank You Lord for her!! can't wait to see what You do in her heart and mind this year.

10 on tuesday {9.6.11}

2011-09-06T18:41:00.003-04:00

10 things i am loving today:

1. SBB fussing on the way home last night, us realizing he just needed a little bit of TLC. he settled right down after this.

2. coming home to a really clean & tidy house. it was easy to fall asleep knowing i didn't have tons of housework to get done today.

3. and then starting our day today and it all getting undone in less than an hour and a half. i looked around and was shocked at how quickly our 2 wrecked the playroom! i could choose to get uptight about it, but i love the signs of life in our house (and naptime is the perfect chance for mama to get the house back the way she likes it). :)

4. our mischievous little dude. seriously! boys are SOOOO different than girls. lily mae was never interested in hiding and climbing and getting into things the way he is. i just love how different they're built.

5. this imaginative sweet darlin, busy at work at her little table.

6. red apple room spray birdie gave me last week - our house is smelling like fall!

7. windows open, cool rainy air breezing in.

8. hearing bus sounds this morning and afternoon. our little girly is so intrigued by school buses. i keep having to remind her that i'll be driving her to preschool...i think she's disappointed.

9. a day today to stay in pj's, do laundry, and make some first day of school plans for LM.

10. CKB coming through the door tonight and announcing he thinks vacation should last one more night. so right now he is out getting gelati. love him!!

past 2 weeks: love/don't love

2011-08-31T11:22:00.001-04:00

LOVE:

-a 5 hour wedding planning pow-wow with mama and mae.

-long chat with my BFF.

-church picnic and baptisms.

-watching lily mae twirl and pose and smile shyly as she tried on flower girl dresses.

-firebirds and the help date with the royal girls.

-seeing the help again with a girlfriend on sunday afternoon.

-my parents' generosity in letting us crash at their cozy house for 2 1/2 days while we had no power or water.

-wedding errands and cracker barrel with mama and the kiddos.

-my obsessive jar collection that allowed ckb to have tons of containers to take to work and fill up with water.

-the fact that we're leaving tomorrow for a long weekend at holden!

-opening up my email and being notified that my awesome husband has bought me an hour long massage.

-trip to target all by myself. please and thank you!

DON'T LOVE:

-the earthquake that rocked us last tuesday. we were at david's bridal, lily mae had just been changed back into her play clothes, and a crazy lady next to us kept yelling "it's a train!! we don't get earthquakes in virginia!" WOW. my sweeeeet girl spent the rest of the afternoon giving me glimpses into her worried heart. she would say "mama, the mirrors shaked...i don't want to shake again." we talked about how God took care of us and kept us safe, and she asked over and over if He was taking care of her friends, too. then on wednesday she was able to giggle about it, asking "mama, do you remember that we had the earthquake?" as if it happened years ago. :)

-fever that turned our sturdy, energetic boy into a pitiful and sad guy. he wound up with a double ear infection, a throat infection, and molars coming in all at the same time.

-stepping outside and laying eyes on a FOUR FOOT LONG shed snake skin right up against the front of the house. hey little demon, thanks a lot for using our house as your rubbing post. i am pretty proud of how calmly i stepped back inside and told clint his attention was needed outside. my country man was able to tell it was poisonous....oh yay. he searched and searched, but that satanic thing is nowhere to be found. i hope he has shriveled up and died a painful death somewhere deep in the ground. dear Lord, i love Your creation and i trust Your every move, but one day i look forward to asking why snakes are a necessary part of Your plan.

-irene - she left us without power from saturday PM to tuesday PM, knocked down 5 beautiful trees in our yard, and caused me to miss my sweet friend's baby shower.

thirty one

2011-08-13T10:14:00.008-04:00

in honor of your 31st birthday, 31 things i love about you:

1. your unshakable trust in God and His provision

2. the level at which you adore my sweet tea :)

3. your big dreams for our family

4. the crazy food combinations you eat

5. all your sweet nicknames for me...sary, sweet tater, buttercream, butterbean...

6. for how happy the 3 of us are when you come through the door at 5:20 every day

7. you still date me and romance me

8. your dance parties with LM

9. for how many mornings i wake up to sounds of you cleaning up the kitchen

10. how you have little pools of mustard and hot sauce on your plate when you eat certain food

11. how one day you and i are going to go on wheel of fortune and win big :)

12. for the awesome leg scratches you give when we are watching TV

13. for the relationship you have with your brother

14. how you actively look and seek out opportunities to share Jesus with people who need to hear about Him

15. for your hard, devoted, tireless work for our family

16. your beat-up and worn Bible with its missing spine and notes spilling out

17. the way you look for ways to outserve me

18. your ability to calm me and surround my heart with a sense of very real peace

19. for getting up in the middle of the night to adjust the AC or the fan...

20...or to help LM go potty

21...or to comfort silas if he fusses

22. this:

23. for the notes you leave me around the house

24. for how respected and loved you are at work

25. the way you smell...mmmmm

26. for assuring me in your actions that you are never ever going to stop leading our family

27. the way you say "come here, wifey" and wrap me in a big close hug

28. your creativity

29. this:

30. how cuuuute you look doing yardwork

31. because i know this year i will somehow find more things i adore about you. i love you, Beas. i am really very honored to be your wife and to be by your side.

5th anniversary mini-moon

2011-08-08T17:25:00.014-04:00

i'd been calling it a getaway, and then my creative husband left me a note in the kitchen one day last week that said "almost time for our 5 year mini-moon!" perfect. :)

birdie came and picked up the kiddos on thursday afternoon, and after throwing our little bit of luggage in the car we were off. oh GOSH i love road trips with him! ckb had downloaded some platt sermons on his ipod and listening to biblical manhood and womanhood was a perfect way to kick off our anniversary weekend. we were both encouraged and challenged and feeling really thankful for our mates.

we got down to the beauuutiful beach house and enjoyed a blissful few days to focus on each other and it was heavenly and sooo needed.

favorite things about our mini-moon:

-thrifting together to hunt for the most random, cheap wooden thing we could find...wood is the traditional 5th anniversary gift. we ended up with a cute little wooden pineapple now perched on a shelf in our bedroom. $2!

-trying and failing to sleep in. our bodies are just not programmed for that anymore! we gave it a valiant effort, though.

-calling home and talking to the babies and hearing about the fun they were having at birdie and pop's.

-being surprised to get DC*B tickets with backstage passes to a meet-and-greet!! we promised no presents, but ckb assured me it was a present for both of us. cannot wait! this will be our 5th or 6th time seeing them together...and an excuse for a getaway to charlotte in november!

-having conversations uninterrupted.

-but also enjoying some silent time...it was nice to just sit and be together. might sound boring but to parents of 2 very young ones it is glorious!

-eating out at 2 of our very favorite places in the whole world.

-shopping for candy at world market and sneaking it in the the theater to see crazy stupid love...first movie we've been out to see in wayyyy too many months. maybe even a year?

-cuddling and watching tv and falling asleep on the super comfy beach house couch.

-playing in the ocean, taking a little sun nap, sitting in the sand and listening to my man yell "woohoooooo!" as he caught waves.

-surprising him and getting dressed up for one of our nights out.

-exchanging these that we'd been working on for awhile. i printed these cards out and we split them up a couple weeks ago and we'd written down our favorite moments from our first 5 married years. we read them together on one of our dates this weekend. now we have a really sweet keepsake and a record of our most treasured memories since august 5, 2006. we wrote down a lot some of the same memories and he remembered a ton of things that i hadn't thought about in awhile. so fun!

-waking up on sunday morning and being sad our mini-moon was almost over, while being equally giddy to get home to our babies. we let ourselves really start missing them on the way home, once the beach was behind us. :)

-a couple hours into our journey home, clint got an amazing chance to share the love of Jesus with 2 men in a really tough situation. i sat in the car while he was with the 2 men and i talked to God about how obviously He had orchestrated this. clint wouldn't have felt good about doing what he did if we had the babies with us, but God knew this was the perfect opportunity for him to meet some of their needs. as he walked back to our car, i just thanked God for my amazing man...and for my man's amazing God.

-later on down the road we listened to another david platt sermon, one that really blew us away and convicted us to focus even harder on a marriage that glorifies God and makes Jesus look awesome.

-once home, we had a few minutes to unpack before we sped to church and waited for birdie, pop, LM, and silas to get there for our missions share service. it was so wonderful reuniting with our babies and getting back to normal. i loved only being wifey for 3 days, and then i loved getting back to being mama too. God reminded me over and over this weekend how blessed i am to be the wife and mama in this precious family.

thank you ckb for an incredible weekend. we HAVE to do this more often!!! i just can't get enough of you.

hello august

2011-08-02T10:37:00.003-04:00

hello to an anniversary getaway for the 2 of us this weekend.

hello to scratching more fun things off our summer to-do list. we slammed through lots of them in june, and then july was busy. august is less full, so i hope we can get back to some fun just for fun's sake.

hello to matt papa's new album this changes everything. we love his music...basically kick-you-in-your-butt sermons in song form. he does not sugarcoat!

hello to ckb's 31st birthday next weekend.

hello to preparations for preschool. giddy about this!

hello to lots of wedding plans that can't wait anymore. maisy & sheppy are getting SO close!

another quick & easy DIY: family rules

2011-07-27T08:00:00.004-04:00

i've been "pinspired" (har har) by lots of family rules signs i've seen. this is on our summer bucket list so i'm delighted to check one more thing off!

i wanted it to fit right in our little wall of frames between our living room windows. i had this 11 x 14 canvas (ollie's is the place to get canvases! i think i paid $2.99 for this one), i went through my patterned paper, picked the colors and subtle patterns that i liked, typed up the rules we picked out, printed them, trimmed them, and mod podged them on. this was one of those projects that i started after putting the kiddos down for naptime and finished before they woke up - my favorite kind of project! it took maybe 45 minutes total.

now we just need to enforce the rules. :)

10 on tuesday {7.26.11}

2011-07-26T21:14:00.004-04:00

1. making soup can wind chimes with LM

2. a visit tonight from my precious daddy. he left and i was still smiling a long while after. :)

3. these dangerous little bites. when i say that these might have changed my life (just like paula sometimes says), i'm really not joking. EASY, fast, cheap, and super delicious treat. i made a batch this afternoon, the 4 of us devoured them immediately, and just a little bit later i found myself pulling more rhodes rolls out of the freezer to start another batch. oh my heavens they are YUMMY. i made half with parmesan and sea salt and the other half with cinnamon sugar. both are awesome, but the cinnamon sugar bites had a little edge. i have to quit talking about them now before i go back to the freezer for more rhodes rolls.

4. watching wheel of fortune with my funny girl. she watches us so closely and when we solve a puzzle she says "did you do it right?!" and then she cheers.

5. tangled

6. being ckb's barber(ette?)

7. packing snacks & stickers & sunscreen for our mission trip. we're leaving thursday for westernport, MD on our church's first multi-generational mission trip. we'll be doing some nursing home ministry, organizing 3 family events for the surrounding neighborhoods, and doing some construction at a church and their community center. my sweet friend annette is completing her children's ministry certification with me, and this is her practicum project: a mission trip for families that will give children hands-on, firsthand missions experience. i'm feeling really honored to be a part of it and excited to see God at work.

8. a little unexpected blessing straight from the hand of God. He is so kind, and i love seeing His provision for us.

9. this song...he sums it all up so beautifully.

10. this boy. clint, shut your ears -- i know how much you hate it when i say stuff like this... but seriously, i could make a meal out of his legs!!! do you see what i mean?

quick & easy DIY: earring display

2011-07-21T17:57:00.006-04:00

i've had this little jewelry wall in my bathroom for several months now and i've been meaning to share this super easy project.

clint stapled the chicken wire to the back of the empty frame, i painted it white and distressed it a little (to match the wire baskets that i already had), and that's all it took to get me something cute on my bathroom wall that keeps my earrings organized. they used to be jumbled all over my bathroom counter and even on my bathroom windowsill - shameful.

on the corner of the frame i just hung the vintage pearl necklace my mama gave me, and my wedding garter that mi-mi made. it had been hiding in my hope chest and i wanted to be able to look at it all the time. :)

my "junky" necklaces are just hanging on target key rails that i think i paid $6 for.

here's my cute little wall with my jewelry and bath products -- one of the quickest and simplest projects to throw together!

things i don't want to forget: our first week in HB

2011-07-21T08:44:00.016-04:00

-skipping fireworks on the 4th in rockville - it stormed, we had been packing the truck most of the day, and we were waking up at 4:30 the next morning to drive down to NC...all very good excuses to be party poopers and head to bed early.

-driving across the bridge tuesday, seeing the beautiful finished house for the first time, unloading the truck all day, waiting for the AC to come on in the house, waiting for the inspector to come for the final visit, getting a phone call from mi-mi about the casey anthony verdict, then fuming and fussing in the car with clint on the way to get lunch...we were shocked about the news and i'd spent the last 4 weeks paying way too much attention to that trial!

-unpacking all the adorable stuff birdie & pop have collected over the past year.

-seeing lily mae & silas' room come together -- it's so so sweet, full of soft beachy color and vintage cuteness that birdie has lovingly gathered up for them.

-waking up early and heading out to the back porch with my Bible. "our room" leads to the back porch which overlooks the canal. i'd say that's a really nice spot for some quiet time. :)

-eating at betty's after a long 2 days of hard work.

-praise baby sounds filling the house...pop & LM would sing together...so precious.

-chats with mae to plan her bachelorette weekend.

-being given mama's debit card and going to food lion with mae to stock the fridge and pantry. i love grocery shopping, but i REALLY love it when i don't have to pay. :)

-going to walmart with mae & birdie and picking up a million little touches we needed to make the house more homey (like toilet paper dispensers and towel bars and baskets and bath rugs).

-taking walks down the street at night.

-fireworks over the canal several nights...definitely made up for missing them on the actual 4th.

-LM & her daddy during their dance parties...she even brought her butterfly princess outfit so they could do it exactly like they do it every night at home.

-sitting on the shore with silas, getting him used to the water. we sat there for the longest time, him so content to be in my lap and let the waves come up and wash over our legs. i could have stayed exactly that way for hours and hours!

-LM getting slowly more adapted to the water every hour...she started out scared and panicky, and by the end of the week she was practically swimming with sheppy and daddy.

-after our first day playing in the sand and in the water, we knew both babies would crash as soon as we cleaned them up and got them dressed. i checked on lily mae just a few minutes after we got her settled in her bed and this is what i found...could not be more perfect!

-reading redeeming love cover to cover...so amazing! thank you for recommending it and you for lending it to me.

-LM's special beach toys that birdie found at yard sales: an animal hospital, disney memory, and a dora playhouse. i had special toys at mi-mi's house at the beach...i love that LM will get that same exciting feeling about the toys that stay at the house just for when she visits.

-daddy grilling and me cooking for our first supper in the house. yummmm...

-mi-mi and pop-pop coming to visit. mi-mi and birdie and LM sat on the screen porch, while pop-pop told the man at the house next door exactly what he thought about his obama sticker. ;) here are pop and pop-pop and LM watching the boys next door play basketball.

-we told LM that if she needed to pee pee while we were at the beach, we would take her in the water. she was sooo excited about that. but our first day at the beach she was still scared of the water, so when she had to go, she just peed right in the sand.

-2nd beach day: silas got a little grumpy so i tried (and failed) to make him a little bed in the wagon and get him to go to sleep.

-late-night newlywed game with all 3 couples. the men really don't love this game...the women have strong opinions about what the men should know by now, and the men end up feeling like they're getting in trouble. still lots and lots of laughter though.

-delaying our annual 4th of july picture a few days and taking it before we all left to go home on sunday. we lined up on the back steps -- thank you ckb for always mastering the timer and the setup!

we're so blessed and excited to make so many memories here in the future!

10 on tuesday {7.19.11}

2011-07-19T20:02:00.005-04:00

10 things i'm loving right now:

1. trader joe's 3 cheese pizza. tastes nothing like the frozen pizzas we became way too familiar with in our first few months of marriage. :)

2. CMoR playdate with the little guy who is quickly becoming lily mae's best friend.

3. far less TV being watched...never ever ever thought i would be saying this, but we got rid of cable and i am loving it! i thought i would feel deprived but instead i'm feeling a little free...is that cheesy? the temptation obviously isn't there when there isn't much to watch, so now i'm much happier to turn it off and do something else...something a lot more worthwhile of my time. i was feeling the nudge from the Holy Spirit to honor Him a little better with my time, and this way of obeying Him just happened to get us more money in the bank each month. ;) win win!

4. surprising my man with gelati.

5. surprising my girl by making peach jello.

6. sweeeet note from my husband. his words spur me on!

7. matt redman's new album. it is amazing and anointed!

8. getting mae's invitations done for her. i loved the busy work and i loved thinking about all the friends and family who'll be joining them for their sweet celebration.

9. stocked pantry and fridge -- gets me inspired to cook yummy meals.

10. teeny tiny itty bitty evidence of our cherry tomato harvest. ckb has done an awesome job of taking care of our garden!

God sightings

2011-07-04T15:12:00.005-04:00

my sweet girl and i came home on monday from VBS with this reminder written on our hands. it hasn't been hard to watch for Him at work this week! He has been at work all around us. some of my God sightings from the past several days:

-8 beautiful faces i got to spend the week with. my crew of VBS kiddos was amazing. they giggled, sang loud, danced silly, played hard, and were so much fun to be around. one of them was an old buddy from MV...sweet surprise, Lord. :) loved getting to know these new friends!!

-happy happy HAPPY news from my sweet friend. i've never been that close to kissing a laptop screen than i was when i got to see a precious glimpse of that new life. ;) thanks for sharing your excitement with us -- we can't wait to celebrate in the coming months.

-we've been a one-car family now for 2 weeks. i'll just tell the truth and say that many days it has sucked, but the silver lining this week was that we got to spend a lot of extra time with daddy. we drove him to work at 8 AM, drove ourselves to VBS, picked him up in the evening, drove him to VBS, and picked him up to take him home at 8 PM. in such a crazy-busy week, we wouldn't have seen him nearly as much if he'd driven himself everywhere.

-wednesday night pizza date with mae and birdie followed by church playground time while we waited for daddy to finish up with his VBS crew. birdie looked pretty hilarious on the airplane seesaw.

-realizing over and over how ADORED and loved our children are at church. makes my mama heart so thankful!

-silas' quick return to health and joy after a rough double ear infection and a fever that knocked him out. he was pretty pitiful and miserable, but he bounced back quick and was able to join us for the last 2 days of VBS. i'm amazed he waited until he was 1 to get his first fever! keep that health coming, Lord!

-birdie's love & care for him while LM and i ventured out to VBS without the sick boy.

-money for 3,790 meals donated by VBS kiddos, as well as loads of school supplies we'll take with us to maryland later this month. i got teary each morning when those sweet children filed up to the front with their offerings. God is so sweet to us, isn't He??

-my family's flexibility and good attitudes when we found out we weren't getting in the beach house quite yet. we were ALL packed up on friday, ready to hit the road saturday AM, when we got the call that we'd hit a snag. so we've enjoyed some rest at home this weekend, and some peach picking on saturday. one of my favorite days of the whole summer!

tonight we're cooking out at the farm, helping pack the big truck, and headed to holden in the morning and we can't wait!!

happy 4th, friends!!

silas, month by month

2011-06-26T16:48:00.013-04:00

LM had her month-by-month pics with AJ Bear. when silas was born, i tried so hard to come up with a clever idea for his monthly photos and just couldn't find one i loved. then literally days before his one-month birthday, i saw this post and wanted to kiss ashley. it looked so easy and i loved that i'd be able to jot down milestones each month.

it got harder and harder to keep him still the older he got. back in the early months i could take 10 or 15 minutes getting all the shots i wanted, all by myself. by his 10th and 11th months i needed clint's help and we got them all snapped within 3 minutes or less. he's not one who loves to sit still. :)

i love how all of these turned out - i can see his sweet personality captured in all of them. i popped my 2 favorite pictures from each month into a little photo album and put it in the time capsule we made him for his 1st birthday. i'm going to print a lot more and make a bigger book that we can keep out and enjoy in the meantime.

enjoy this look at my sweet boy's first year...

365 quick days later...

2011-06-21T20:34:00.002-04:00

the anatomy of a sweet date night

2011-06-16T09:06:00.004-04:00

-put the kiddos to bed.

-take pillows, a blanket, your ipod + a little speaker, and your husband outside.

-cuddle up on the hammock underneath pretty lights.

-cue up the playlist you created just for this date night, listen to songs from your history together, laugh at some memories, savor the sweetness of marriage.

here's our love song list...some of these may seem so so random and odd, but there are sweet memories behind every single one. :)

1. You Are So Good To Me - Third Day

our friendship grew as ckb led youth worship and i sang on his team. we sang this song most sunday nights that our team led worship.

2. Macon Georgia Blue - Jeff Healey Band

he found out i grew up in GA and surprised me with a recording of this song once we started getting verrrrry interested in each other.

3. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley

our first december together, it snowed and snowed and snowed some more. it was my senior year in high school and we had tons of snow days. he and i spent a lot of time together on our days off. we drove to movies and the park in his grand prix and we almost wore out my southern man's favorite Christmas album - Elvis. :)

4. On and On - Kevin Max

he played this song for me on a fancy date he arranged to make up for not being able to take me to prom. :)

5. Hot For Teacher - Van Halen (don't laugh!)

when i was at jmu, i was studying to be a teacher. we spent a lot of time in his new jeep driving back and forth to harrisonburg. he'd drive me back after a weekend home, or we'd drive around h'burg looking for stuff to do, and he joked that this song was about us.

6. Unbelievable - downhere

we worshipped along with this song so many times in the months leading up to our wedding day. it reminds me of that exciting time when we were counting the days until we were husband and wife.

7. A Page Is Turned - Bebo Norman

the amazing song in our slideshow video that played before our wedding ceremony began. we love love love the lyrics.

8. How Great Is Our God - Chris Tomlin

song that our friend ray played while my daddy & i walked down the aisle.

9. Bring It On - Seal

don't know why, but for some reason we listened to seal a lot on our road trip honeymoon.

10. Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles

the last night of our GA honeymoon, we decided this definitely needed to be our song.

11. Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder

the song we played in the car right after we found out our first baby was a girl. :)

12. Shine - Matt Redman

we both really love this song. ckb decided it needed to be our family hymn shortly after LM was born.

12. Have I Told You Lately - Van Morrison

just a sweet song we've always loved. we've slow-danced to it in our living room lots of times. :)

13. I Need You - Tim McGraw & Faith Hill

same story here

14. Awakening - Chris Tomlin

we worshipped along with this song a lot in the months leading up to silas' birth. we had been broken free from a bad situation, we were so thankful for this season, and we were so excited to have our baby boy here. we played it on our way to the hospital the morning of his birth day.

15. Dancing In The Minefields - Andrew Peterson

LOVE this perfect song about marriage. introduced it to ckb and he fell in love too.

16. Honey Bee - Blake Shelton

just an irresistible song we both have fun with.

(loving this series of awesome date night ideas -- thanks for the inspiration andi!)

things

2011-06-11T11:04:00.011-04:00

funny things

-silas is really ticked off that we've had to put child locks on our bottom kitchen cabinets. he loves wandering in there and helping himself to a glass pitcher to play with, but now we've rained on his parade and he's let us know how he feels about it. he's really frustrated and confused when he tries to open them now.

-LM's pronunciation of lasagna: "pasama"

happy things

-i really scored at an estate sale and yard sales this weekend. a sweet lady moving in 3 houses down from us sold me a huge armful of vintage bowls, colanders, and trays for $10. then i made my way over to her neck of the woods and got a bike for LM, board games, an old fisher price toy barn, a lego wagon filled with big legos, and clothes for silas...all for $12.50. i was a happy lady.

-then this morning silas & i headed out for some really early sales. today's finds were a big mirror, more clothes for silas, more board games and books, a pop-up fire truck tent, and a little tikes basketball hoop. woohoooo.

-meanwhile LM and her daddy were sent out on a super secret date. silas and i waved them goodbye and sent them on their surprise mission this morning. since next weekend will be pretty filled up with celebrating silas, we're giving daddy some father's day love a little early. those 2 best buddies are sure to have a sweet time together.

-we are all hopefully headed down to holden beach in 3 weeks to move furniture in!!!!!

-lunch dates with daddy 3 days this week. we loved all the extra daddy time.

-ckb and i are super excited to be working at vbs this year. i haven't filled any role except director in many years. it's going to be so much fun being a crew leader and being a part of the action instead of the one behind the scenes. ckb's serving in the night session, and the kiddos and i are going in the mornings. fun and busy times for the 4 of us. :)

cute things

-this little chipmunk who lives in our yard and sometimes comes up on the deck to greet us.

-silas' newfound love of banana chunks...he shovels them in his mouth as if he's starving to death. (have you seen him? or picked him up? then you know he's in NO danger of starving anytime soon.)

bittersweet things

-silas has one more week until he's 1. i don't need to explain why that's partly bitter, right friends?

-got to see my BFF this weekend when she and andrew came up. we spent saturday afternoon helping mae with wedding details and gobbling up yummy food that daddy & birdie fixed for us. we had plans on sunday and monday too, but her granddaddy landed in ICU with a really high fever and they had to hurry back. praying hard for her sweet granddaddy this week, and looking forward to when we can make up for that lost time. :)

-overwhelmed with prayer requests for many friends. sweet because it brings me often to His throne, bitter because we are aware of lots of friends going through very hard things.

annoying things

-spiders in the house

-splinters

proud mama moment

2011-06-02T10:28:00.004-04:00

when i sat LM down to "sign" birdie's mother's day card last month, i expected her to go at it scribbling like she usually does. she sat on the floor in the living room and quietly worked for several minutes. when she was all done, i went to retrieve it and asked her what she'd drawn and she said "birdie and pop!"...let me tell you, i was pretty stunned when i saw 2 people with hair, eyes, mouths, legs, and arms. she'd never drawn anything like that before. she draws rough circles and squares, she forms several letters, and she loves to color. but people that look like people?? i jumped up and down and squealed and ran to show clint. she probably wondered what the big deal was. i reluctantly handed that card over to birdie later that day, but swiftly sat lily mae down and begged her to draw a picture of our family. i didn't even mind that she only used the black crayon. :)

isn't this just precious?? BY FAR my favorite picture of the 4 of us!

(i mean, she even made daddy the tallest and silas the littlest...isn't that crazy?!)

showering maisy daisy

2011-05-30T10:35:00.004-04:00

mae keeps thanking me over and over and telling me how thankful she was for such a fun day, but this was NO work and all sweetness for me. lots of fun to plan and prepare for it, and very very sweet to spend an afternoon with ladies who love her so much.

we went with simple backyard cuteness because mae's a simple girl. there's not a prissy cell in her body. she's going with lots of rustic touches for her wedding, so her shower had to match. her little celebration was full of photos of them, tin cans, mason jars, lemons, chalkboards, and lace. blue, gray, white, and yellow turned into such a pretty color scheme...good idea maisy. :)

(thank you lovely friend for helping take pictures!)

birdie made ham biscuits, cheese crisps, and one-bowl brownies. i made 'summer berry cream cups' (called 'puffs' here) and lemon blossoms. *lemon blossoms are the way to mr. b's heart. these were the first little treats i ever baked in our tiny first apartment when we returned from our honeymoon. i must have wanted to make a paula recipe after being inspired in savannah for a week. don't tell clint, but i think they are the perfect girly treat for a shower!

besides giving her thoughtful & incredible gifts, the ladies brought recipes for mae's growing collection -- i am a little jealous! she got some really good ones! and these precious women also left her with tidbits of wisdom, things they love about her, and predictions about their first year of marriage.

then lindsey, stevie, mama, and i whisked her away for a little girls' night out. actually sheppy barged in on dinner (just kidding sheppy - you know you were totally invited) and then we watched 'bridesmaids.' holy holy holy moly. no scratch that, there was NOTHING holy about that movie. in fact i told clint that i felt like i needed to scrub my brain. but it was super hilarious and a fun memory to have with maisy.

i love you, sweet and beautiful soon-to-be wife of phillip! what a blessed man he is!

favorite things right this minute...

2011-05-18T14:46:00.005-04:00

-these new yummy waffles. wouldn't eat them every day, but for a special fluffy treat, they are good!

-peonies my daddy plants for me every year for mother's day. last year's white peonies are blooming so great now. they just smell so perfect...the most southern flower, i think. :)

-productivity. holy moly. in the last 2 weeks i have done yard work, TONS of cleaning and organizing, a little redecorating in the kiddos' room, lots of party planning, lots of errand running, and lots of cooking and baking. feels SO great to whiz around the house and get things DONE while the windows are open and breeze is blowing in.

-waking up and making the bed immediately, then diving in to my Bible study and quiet time. helps set the day off to a great start, getting me in the right mind-set and not worrying about the other things. if the bed is made and i've got my heart ready for the day, mama's a lot happier.

-courageous. ok so imb told us several weeks ago we were invited to this movie. all i heard was "free movie/date with my man" and i checked our calendar, called birdie, and asked clint to sign us up. i had no idea what the movie was about. seriously, like i knew NOTHING except it's made by sherwood baptist folks. so last tuesday i dropped the babies off at the farm, went back home to get just a teeny bit gussied up, welcomed clint home, we ate at extra billy's, and made our way to the byrd. oh my goodness...this movie is incredible. it was funny, it had impressive action, and it was so touching and convicting. it centers around the theme of Godly fatherhood. there was a theater full of crying men, yall. it's coming out in september! mark your calendars because you'll want to see it.

-my boy's THREE words: "mama" which he says all the time. it's so precious...he says it when he's fussing, he says it when i walk in the room, and he repeats it after us. last week he started saying "ball." i joked with clint that those were the only important words he needed to know, and clint said "what about daddy?" with this sad look on his face, and right then silas said "dad! dad!" like he was saying "don't worry daddy - i haven't forgotten about you!" his little voice is so adorable. i'd forgotten how sweet those first few words are.

{rewind} Easter

2011-05-15T15:29:00.009-04:00

we had a really sweet Easter season. our superman added lots of extra fun, we started a precious family tradition, we soaked up God's goodness, savored the start of spring, and loved our Savior.

on Good Friday we celebrated with the beasleys and loved getting to spend some quality time with our niece laura. we went to an awesome worship service that night devoted just to the sacrifice of the cross. really prepared our hearts to fully revel in the goodness of Resurrection Sunday!

saturday we played outside, made bird seed wreaths and ornaments for our trees outside, and my man and i got a great date night.

Easter day was just precious, only we really missed mae & sheppy. the babies got to tear through their Easter baskets right before we left for church. silas' was mostly filled with puffs and mum mum crackers, while LM got the really good stuff. kisses and fruit snacks and starbursts. but her favorite present was a sweet little cross necklace she immediately put on. she showed her teacher, mrs. rhonda and told her all about how "Jesus had hurts on him when he was on the cross." the worship service was incredible and overwhelming, and then we got to help with the school-agers at 11. it did our hearts so good to worship that way!

we headed to the farm for a feast that still makes me drool 3 weeks later. yummmm. we still had one more Resurrection egg to get to, so we brought our carton with us to the farm and finished it up there. then we went through all 12 eggs and LM was able to retell the whole story to birdie and pop. i prayed God would just seal that priceless knowledge of Him in her heart forever.

LM looked for eggs and quickly got on a sugar high, and ckb and i looked for our eggs together...an act that would have made competitive maisy's head explode if she had been there. we just thought it'd be nice to make it a partner event (well i thought it would be fun...i think clint still wanted to make it a hardcore competition but he gave in). the adult version of an Easter egg hunt at the farm includes $. so to make it fair we put all the eggs we found together in a basket and LM decided which eggs belonged to mama and which belonged to daddy. :)

and would you just look at this amazing boy enjoying his first Easter? he is so irresistible.

this week's action

2011-04-20T08:39:00.004-04:00

stuffing Easter baskets - love that i have 2 to put together this year. :)

coughing, aching, sneezing for the 3 b's who stay home each day. yuck. none of us were having allergy issues over the past several weeks. then we went to NC and our systems must have gotten messed up. :(

watering and tending to our pepper, tomato, strawberry, daisy, and marigold starters in jars and pots lined up on the kitchen window.

spending sweet time each night engrossed in the greatest story ever told, watching LM crack open an egg to reveal the hint inside. we will do this every single year! i'm hooked.

trying to remember all mi-mi taught me last weekend about knitting. :)

sewing some yo-yo's for LM's Easter outfit.

pinching myself that i have a handsome little stud to get dressed for Easter this year.

slapping more art & pictures up on the walls.

almost flipping out when i found this recipe for cookies almost exactly like the ones we used to eat at camp willow run. oh my goodness YUMM. (it's a vegan recipe - i obviously used real butter and eggs instead).

talking about wedding plans with mae & mama.

fans on, windows open, trying to avoid AC when we can.

finally putting away the cold-weather clothes for good. loving the sight of short sleeves in my closet again.

flip flops & shorts.

scheming details for our beautiful bride's shower coming up soon!

playing our favorite card game in bed. we have a new AMAZING mattress that we can't stay away from. the definition of comfy sleeping...ahhhhh.

packing for a week in raleigh.

loving these 2 cuties.

just being honest

2011-04-13T16:50:00.001-04:00

silas and LM have transitioned into relatively low-maintenance stages. silas is sleeping through the night, doesn't require feedings every 2.5 hours anymore, plays on his own a lot with lily mae, and is in that sweet spot between crawling and walking. crawling satisfies his desire to explore, but he's not walking yet so i don't always have to be on my toes running after him. lily mae is just so so easy and laid back (usually). she plays hard and chats and giggles and sings all day, and she's just so fun to have in the house. now, i'm not saying we don't have our challenging moments. if you saw me trying to wrangle both of them out the door at target, probably sweating, and definitely leaving behind all my bags at the check-out counter, you'd want to say a prayer for me. but for the most part, things have definitely gotten into a bit of a relaxed swing around here, and it's very very nice.

and you know what i am catching myself thinking over and over again?

quick, let's get started with another one before we get used to these low-maintenance stages.

i'm not joking. c and i have said many times to each other that one of the beauties of having our 2 kinda close together is that we never gave ourselves the chance to really get out of the baby stage. so it wasn't a shock to our systems when junebug came along and we were back to sleepless nights...it hadn't been that long since we'd been in newborn land. some days the idea of ONE phase of my life dedicated to baby-nurturing really appeals to me. other days i want to stretch it out and can imagine having a baby in 8 or 10 more years. but lately i've been camping out on the "i want a baby again SOON" side.

and then silas reminds me that he's still very much a baby. like this morning, when we had the house just to ourselves, and i was able to get some stuff done. he was full, freshly changed, and should have been satisfied, but he just sat pitifully on the floor and fussed, which he never does. i picked him up, we made our way to the rocking chair, and i had to rock him to sleep. he murmured and moaned his way to sleep, and i just stroked his big ol' cute cheeks and kissed his lips and smelled his sweet breath. he was so content to be curled up on my chest, snuggled up to the mama he needs.

we have no plans to have another baby anytime soon! we know God might have a different plan, but on my most rational days, i'm fully committed to being a family of 4 for awhile and dreaming about growing our family later on.

i'm just saying...babies are addicting. i just love the newborn stage. and being pregnant. and all of it. i don't mind being transparent, and i think most women relate to this: the struggle of the decisions that surround having children. when do we start a family? are we done? (i KNOW we're not, by the way!) how many do we want? how long do we wait until we have the next one? how long will it take to get pregnant?

or maybe you don't relate, and i'm just crazy. :) but come on, admit it, babies are very enticing little creatures, aren't they? my 2 little ones have made their way right to the very center of my heart, and i just don't want to miss a bit of the joy God might have coming our way in the form of more.

weekend verbs

2011-04-10T19:02:00.003-04:00

dating - thank you favorite pizza + regal cinemas popcorn to-go + raisinets + netflix for a great date night in with my man.

nesting - we spent lots of time on saturday running house and yard errands and cooking. i love nurturing our nest.

planting - strawberries in a pot and more herbs for my growing little deck garden. i am DYING to plant our corn, tomatoes, peppers, and all the other yummy produce we're planning for a corner of our yard. we need some warm temps to stay, please.

planning - a trip to NC this weekend to see my sweet mi-mi and pop-pop and to visit the newest member of our family (beach house).

worshiping - this morning and again this afternoon with my favorite preschooler at spring fling. she loved it all: necklace and plant marker making, dirt cup eating, bubble blowing, friend meeting, treasure and egg hunting, playground playing, singing, wiggling, smiling, hugging.

napping - for all 4 of us. thanks Lord!

for today: april 8

2011-04-08T14:39:00.003-04:00

from the simple woman's daybook

outside my window...lots of green, pink, yellow, and white. colors of spring. :)

i am thinking...about plans and ideas for a shower in honor of the beautiful future mrs. ledford.

i am thankful for...great news and recognition for my husband at work yesterday. i just love his heart, his hard work, and the organization he serves.

from the kitchen...lemon cookies and brownies were made this week. in the middle of a self-proclaimed break from baking so that a counter full of sweet treats won't tempt us. i need to work on the self-control...right after i make some caramel sauce tonight.

i am wearing...jeans & a long-sleeve tee. wrong wrong wrong. time for spring clothes, please.

i am creating...a sweet at-home date for me & my man tonight. i sorta love the creativity we're forced to have since real date nights are so so rare. i've got some fun things up my sleeve for him. :)

i am going...to teach a session on monday night about leading preschoolers in VBS. i love this new season in my life in which God has caused me to fall even more in love with preschoolers.

i am reading...little bee for fun and radical for discipleship.

i am hoping...for a little getaway for me + c sometime soon. it's been more than 2 years now since we've done that. ouch.

i am hearing...silas talking to himself as he falls asleep...a little rain outside...silence from LM's bed...kitchen clock ticking. i love how quiet the house gets in the afternoon.

around the house...signs of spring: daisies growing in a cheery yellow pot and marigolds growing in a little egg on the windowsill, pretty white flowers on the kitchen table, dandelions plucked by LM left in crazy spots all over the house, and fresh homegrown herbs in the fridge.

one of my favorite things...the sweet sound of lily mae singing "oh be careful little heart what you trust."

a few plans for the rest of the week...mowing and weeding and maybe some planting tomorrow. it will be chilly, but i don't care. i am SO ready for spring and we're going to pretend it's 70 degrees anyway.

picture thought i am sharing...2 cuties at dinner last night.

lily mae's rainbow party

2011-03-28T16:06:00.028-04:00

lily mae's color-filled party was tons and tons of fun. inspiration was easy to find...party blogs are busting with rainbow ideas. this theme was so easy to decide on because the girl really loves colors and all things girly, like rainbows and birds and flowers. it was hard not to laugh this morning at her 3-year checkup when her sweet doctor asked her if she knew any colors. she pointed to some colors around the room and asked LM to identify them, and then she pointed to orange and said "this one might be tricky - what's this?" when LM answered, she said "oh wow! she knows more than just the primary colors!" yes, the girl REALLY loves colors. :)

this party was lots of fun to prepare for and i was so thrilled when the time finally came and lily mae didn't have to be patient anymore. for a couple weeks she'd ask me "is it time to get dressed for my rainbow party?" and i'd hear her in her room singing happy birthday to herself. she couldn't wait to have her friends and family here, and i guess she was also a little excited for cake and presents. here are some details i don't want to forget.

rainbows and clouds hanging from the window frame above our kitchen table. 9 days later and all these decorations are still in place. they're so cheery. :)

mantel totally dedicated to the new 3-year-old

the birthday girl and her friend dylan running up the deck steps for some food. thank you target for the perfect rainbow outfit. :)

sheppy arrived at the party with an armful of balloons for her. so precious. they were perfect tied to her special birthday chair.

the weather was so so perfect. the forecast made me scared that God was going to take "rainbow" very seriously and send some rain first, but it stayed sunny the whole day. only issue was the wind which kept threatening to rip the tablecloths away.

colorful bowls, rainbow goldfish, a rainbow of fresh fruit, and chocolate gold coins. :)

one of my favorite moments was when her sunday school teacher, mrs. rhonda, arrived. i didn't dare tell lily mae she was coming, for fear that something would come up and mrs. rhonda wouldn't be able to come. LM would have been devastated-- seriously. so when she got there and went right over to lily mae, mrs. rhonda's biggest fan was so surprised and tickled to see her. not long after this lily mae started dancing the funniest little jig while mrs. rhonda clapped and cheered her on. :)

i had more fun than i probably should have hiding plastic junk throughout the yard early that morning. we got lots of dollar store party favors in different colors and each team had to find every color of the rainbow. now i'm wondering how many junk toys clint will run over with his tractor this year. :)

LM loved all the loot she found during the treasure hunt. :)

funfetti cupcakes with a rainbow of ribbon flags

i was obsessed with how cute this cake turned out and it was SO easy. light blue buttercream + skittles + mini marshmallows. easy peasy. i'm glad we had some extra candles on hand because at the last minute i lost the "3" candle we'd bought. still have no idea where it went -- oh well. :)

she savored her cake and then moved on to scraping the icing off a cupcake with her teeth.

so happy we did this. now she has a keepsake jar filled with the sweetest notes from the people who love her.

...and my absolute favorite part of the day - cuddled up on the couch and debriefing with my sweet girl after it was all over. we loved her day and we love our girl!

friday faves

2011-03-25T18:44:00.010-04:00

i've felt the urge tonight to focus on some positive things. we've had a bit of a rough day. c is almost done with a 12-hour workday -- when these long days fall on friday, they're extra yucky. i have no nerves left after 5 very full days of being mama without daddy's help (and wondering how in the WORLD single moms do it) and LM has caught a nasty tummy bug, causing the 3 of us to miss our sunday school contentment challenge night. yuck. :(

so...here are some things making me SMILE. (can you hear me telling myself to suck it up and smile??)

-pretty flowers my man brought home to me early this week. 4 days later, they're still so fresh and happy. love them bringing me some cheer on my bedside table.

-my boy's funny faux-hawk. he loves to run his messy hands all throughout his hair while we feed him. a few nights ago i was giving him a lazy mama's wipe-bath after supper and i was inspired to give him this cute 'do. he looks so cool.

-my girl in her "butterfly princess" costume sheppy gave her for her birthday. she was so proud of it, prancing around the playroom and struttin' her stuff.

-RVA boys in the sweet 16. come on rams!!

-homemade chocolate mousse for the Bible study girls. we finished up esther this week. i loved it...but beth can really do no wrong in my eyes. :)

-bag full of goodies from ikea and a new mattress on its way.

-reading IJM updates every time a sex trafficker is convicted or a slave is set free. i love this organization so much.

-my happy boy who found the big picture window this week. he's the perfect height now to pull up and peer outside. he just stood there for minutes, totally fascinated. i thought he looked like a proud old farmer looking out at all his land. haha.

-praise baby dvd's. LM sorta liked them as a baby, but now she in enthralled by them. she sings along and narrates when a new picture pops up. silas loves them too, way more than LM did when she was that young. they are so soothing and i love the worship songs filling our house.

happy weekend!

watch and smile :)

2011-03-21T09:19:00.001-04:00

...and keep watching after the chris tomlin song is done...someone else's song follows shortly after. :)

let's party

2011-03-17T10:58:00.003-04:00

SO excited for the next 2 days of celebrating our girl!

starting tomorrow we'll be up to:

-waking her up with singing

-3-shaped cinnamon twists for breakfast on the special birthday plate

-our lunch tradition at cpk, complete with a birthday sundae

-our other tradition of playtime at crump and some sweet pictures in front of the crosses

-family supper at the farm + strawberry cake :)

-a rainbow party on saturday so our friends and family can love on her some more

-lots of prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for her 4th year

HAPPY 3 YEARS SWEET ONE!

10 on tuesday {3.15.11}

2011-03-15T08:50:00.005-04:00

in honor of our beauty's 3rd birthday this week, 10 things i just adore about her right now:

1. lily mae, i love your sweet, tender, thoughtful heart. during prayer time before bed, you always think of people who need our prayers. sometimes it's your baby dolls. :) other times it's the people in "unjerpan" (japan) who you are very concerned about right now. last week you told me "they're frustrated" with the most worried look on your face. i love your sensitivity!

2. i love how good you are with silas. you're so affectionate, always kissing his face or hugging him. you're SO interested in what he's doing, you chase him around the house, you include him in most of your play, you're quiet during his naptimes. i love that you have a constant playmate, and it's precious how caring you are with him. i hope yall will be close!

3. i love how much you love church. about a month ago i interviewed you to hear some of your funny favorites (like food: pickles, animal: cow), and you said your best friend is mrs. rhonda, your sunday school teacher. you love learning about Jesus, playing with your friends, staying busy with crafts and activities. you always have so much to tell us on the way home on sundays!

4. i love your JOY when you're playing outside. you love sunshine and flowers and fresh air and grass and even dirt.

5. i love your hilarious expressions. you twist your face into these dramatic expressions that crack your daddy and me up. you're so good at faking scared, worried, sad, mad, surprised...you are endlessly entertaining.

6. i love how sharp and smart your brain is. you pick up new skills SO quickly. you are writing letters, which blows me away. your ear for music is amazing, too. you hear a song once or twice and then you've got it down, even with great pitch.

7. i love how cuddly you've become. you haven't always been this way...you have a real sense of independence, so from the time you were about 18 months, you just haven't been that interested in sitting still and snuggling. but lately, you'll come up to us and ask to cuddle. we LOVE it, can't get enough of it!

8. i love how hard you play -- you throw your whole body and imagination into it!

9. i love everything about the way God designed you: your gorgeous blue eyes, your sweet curls, your lean little body, your cute nose and lips, your adorable teeth, your ears the stick out a little like your daddy's do.

10. i just love your presence in our home. precious giggy girl, you bring so much joy, fun, laughter, happy noise, action, and sweetness to us. you're our girl we've always loved and always will!

bits & pieces

2011-03-13T19:05:00.004-04:00

-loving the warm weather, plenty of outside playtime for LM, big bunches of daffodils springing up, yard work, preparing for planting lots of veggies. i honored the Sabbath in a serious way today. that sounds a lot better than "i took a mammoth nap on the couch." clint spent that time outside and i woke up to a new yard. he got rid of these 2 giant nasty bushes i lovingly call the snake pit. we've never seen a snake on our property (thank You Jesus!) but these ugly bushes just look like a snake haven to me. now they're gone. thanks hubs!

-been worshiping this week along with christy + matt + chris + charlie + dc*b + kristian + lecrae. the new passion album is incredible.

-silas is crawling like a pro, pulling up, and cruising. newfound mobility = lots of bumps and bruises. LM must have been a lot more graceful, or maybe silas is more daring and dangerous. so far he's already managed an eye bruise that resembled a black eye, a bloody nose, and way more scratches and head slams than i can count. it's a good thing he's tough. but i am desperate for him to slow down. i don't want my baby bubble burst. please please please just stay a baby a little longer, sweet boy.

-i love our small house. so so much. one day soon i might write a whole post on all the advantages i see to having a little nest as opposed to a giant one. BUT our house looks like a party threw up in it right now. a spare bedroom would really be useful right about now...a place i could shove presents and decorations and just shut the door. oh well. :)

-my parents' house at holden beach is coming right along and we cannot wait to get in there and start making memories. i can't believe lily mae and silas and mae & sheppy's children will have the same HB memories mae and i got to have...daddy pulling us down the street to the beach in a wagon...getting the sand hosed out of our bathing suits after a full day...spending evenings down at the canal...playing cards and games and watching movies. we're so so excited and READY for some summer fun.

-we got a surprise date last night. thank you birdie and pop! quality time with my man is so good for me. it just spurs me on and gives me energy. i love him.

-anybody else make it a habit to savor the target weekly ad every sunday? i love it more than i should.

-this week we celebrated a funny anniversary. i'm so thankful that God's brought us so far that we truly see it as a celebration. i mean a laughing our heads off type of celebration. we just thank Him for rescuing us, giving us clarity, setting our feet on a ROCK. life has changed, and it's beautiful. i thought remembering that hard time would be bittersweet, but it was no bitter and ALL sweet. that's how good God is. He brings beauty out of ashes.

-and now comes this week -- a celebration of our lovely girl. can't believe she'll be 3 in 5 days. unbelievable to me! it's time for traditions and prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for her future and lots of FUN. love her so.

-psalms 16 17 and 18 have resonated in my heart all week. here's a snippet i especially love:

as for God, His way is perfect:
the LORD’s word is flawless;
He shields all who take refuge in Him.
for who is God besides the LORD?
and who is the Rock except our God?
it is God who arms me with strength
and keeps my way secure.

-psalm 18:30-32

11 happies, 2 uglies

2011-02-27T20:34:00.003-05:00

first, the happies:

1. we have a new church family. this body has stepped in and loved on us like family for months, but now it's official. we are overflowing with gratitude for a journey that was blessed through and through, for crystal clarity, and for deep contentment and excitement about what God will do with our future. we're so ready to start serving. thank You sweet Jesus. :)

2. we are reclaiming our room as our own! silas has slept in his crib in his & LM's room for the past 3 nights. a little crying the first 2 nights, and we think none last night. (we didn't even have the monitor on...how horrible are we?) the funny part is that LM has had to sleep in our bed these nights so silas can cry it out as he gets used to it. she is so hilarious. she can't quite get all the way settled down because she's so excited to be in bed with us. she spends the whole night waking up to touch us, put her feet on our backs, play with my hair, stroke my arm, and say crazy things like "i want to sleep in the manger!" hopefully she'll join silas and they'll both be OUT of our bed in a couple nights! i can't believe it. we haven't had our room to ourselves since the middle of june. and to think we may sleep through the night....oh it's almost too much. :)

3. homemade mini molten lava cakes for an at-home date my husband orchestrated this week. i took care of the baking, but he did everything else. so sweet. i love that man's creativity.

4. taking a lovely girl's 1 year portraits. they turned out amazing. she gave the cutest expressions and braved the chilly wind.

5. a visit from a precious kindred spirit, a beautiful soul i'm blessed to call my friend. she even brought pizza. :)

6. silas babbling "mamamamamama" as he follows me all around the house. i LOVE him!!

7. consignment sale shopping with my mama and sister, stocking up for the spring. LM got some adorable dresses and silas got some handsome shirts.

8. sweet friends who cared for our 2 while we went to gayton 101.

9. planning for my first baby's 3rd birthday party. it's gonna be cute & colorful. can't wait.

10. more than halfway through my esther study. it's been a really good one! (but does beth do anything that isn't good?)

11. precious card in the mail from her.

and 2 uglies:

1. silas & LM are both under the weather with some cold-type junk. first silas got it thursday, then LM came down with it last night. they're both still happy, but i can tell they feel cruddy....easily irritated and uncomfortable. poor little loves. LM woke up coughing in the middle of the night and mumbled "go away cough."

2. LM's first playground bully experience -- i wish this was an exaggeration. last weekend we were playing at crump park with some friends, and LM was doing a great job of coming down the slide herself. she had done it over and over and was having such a good time. then a 5 or 6 year old boy got right behind her at the top of the tunnel slide, and i could tell he was being impatient with her. he kept inching forward and all of a sudden i couldn't see LM at the entrance of the slide anymore. i ran over as quick as i could, but before i got there, he had pushed her too hard and she was already at the bottom of the slide, face first. she hadn't gotten the chance to put her feet first and the poor thing must have been so scared as she slid down with her hands and face headed down before the rest of her body. before i got to her, she was already screaming and crying at the bottom of the slide. i was most irritated at the boy's mother, who was sitting near the bottom of the slide. she saw LM and just said "oh." i'm thankful for my friends christen and kristan who took care of silas while i ran LM under the picnic shade and tended to her! her teeth had cut her lip, and her nose was bleeding. she had mulch all up her nose and in her mouth. she was SUCH a trooper though, recovering so quickly. then she immediately got down to business gathering sympathy from clint and my family. :) since then we've prayed for the boy and lily mae has decided he needs to know the part of the song that goes "be careful little hands what you do." she is such a tough sweetheart!! i adore her!

10 on tuesday {2.15.11}

2011-02-15T09:22:00.002-05:00

10 things i loved about yesterday:

1. lily mae unknowingly putting a "nice job" sticker on silas' foot. it was like she was complimenting God on a good creation. made me giggle!

2. remnants from a sweet time with sweet friends left around the kitchen. on saturday we created, snacked a little, laughed, and chatted. fun fun. :)

3. GORGEOUS weather. we had the windows open, curtains blowing. i am so ready for planting and farmer's markets and a 3-year-old's birthday party and yard work and park dates and grilling and everything else spring!!

4. long phone date with my mama. we talked about friends, daddy, the kidlets, and my favorite part: the grammys. that woman is so hilarious. i love her!

5. remembering how HARD my husband laughed the night before at cee lo green. oh good gravy. he laughed until he had to bend over and hold his stomach, tears rolling down his face. i was really scared he was going to wake up the babies. that's what my family calls getting your giggle box turned over.

6. heart-shaped lunch for lily mae that she ooohed and ahhhed over. she's still talking about it today. when she saw the pb&j, the cheese slice, and the apples all in heart shapes, she said "mama that's like the most bootiful hearts i've ever seen!" she is so easy to please, and even easier to love. :)

7. an afternoon call from my man who said to check my email. God had provided in a big big BIG way and we are very humbled and thankful. clint's taken a lot of leaps of faith to be able to provide for us this year, and to make sure i can stay home. God is so so faithful, much more steady and loving than my tiny brain can comprehend.

8. cracker barrel with the sweet set of parents i got when i married clint. fred shares a birthday with valentine's day. :) comfort food + grandbaby spoiling + funny conversation.

9. the anticipation of our valentine's day: 2.22. ever since our first valentine's day in 2003, we've celebrated 8 days later. our first year, i was singing in NYC on the 14th. our second year on the 14th, he was in NYC at a trade show. so we've had to postpone since the beginning, and we turned it into a fun tradition that i LOVE. it's so fun to look forward to celebrating on a date all our own.

10. ending our night with a long heart-to-heart about marriage and love. i know how blessed i am to have a man who leads us and who fights for us. i love our past, our present is oh so sweet, and our future makes me excited.

kisses & hugs from LM & silas

2011-02-14T11:25:00.005-05:00

......happy heart day!!

B-O-Y

2011-01-20T22:16:00.002-05:00

it's been one sweet year of BOYness. this time last year we were having a tough time falling asleep because we were so excited to find out we were having a boy. i was a little afraid of the unknown, and a little unnerved about the added expense, because holy COW do we have a lot of girl stuff!! but oh how thrilled i was to know we would have a son. and now this boy has moved right into the very center of my heart and made his home there. i'm wrapped around his chubby finger and i love it that way!! love you so much, my little man!

marriage habits and rhythms - part 3

2011-01-19T15:58:00.005-05:00

whew, it's been awhile since i've blogged at all, but especially on this topic, and i've got so much more marriage stuff to share (plus a guest post or two on this topic!) :)

the next habit i want to talk about is one that i'm really passionate about, and sadly it's one that i don't always see displayed in other marriages. but this is a rule that i live by, sort of a motto, and it is:

praise my husband publicly, criticize privately.

i know it means a lot to my man when he hears me praising him in front of others. this isn't really a pride thing, as if it makes him happy that others will know how pleased i am with him. it's more that he loves the fact that i just can't keep my mouth shut about him. :) i save LOTS of praise for him privately, even praising him MORE in private than i do publicly, but i am not shy around others about the fact that he's wonderful, and i know that makes him smile. wouldn't you love to overhear your husband tell his friends that he thinks you're just the best?

but i think the second part is the most important. i've worked hard to make it a habit to never ever ever criticize my husband around others, whether he is around to listen or not (especially if he isn't around). i remember having a conversation with this wise friend many years ago - before either of us were wives. we talked about the sad truth that many Christian women think it's cute or funny to get together and just berate and talk terribly about their husbands. it's an ugly practice, but it's as though we think it's OK as long as we're giggling or as long as we're talking about our own husbands and not somebody else's. yet God is very clear through His Word that husbands and wives are to respect each other. He also gave us lots of Scripture to instruct us regarding our speech:

the words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

-proverbs 12:18

don't let any evil talk come out of your mouths. say only what will help to build others up and meet their needs. then what you say will help those who listen.

-ephesians 4:29

if you speak, you should do it like one speaking God's very words.

-1 peter 4:11

set a guard over my mouth, LORD;

keep watch over the door of my lips.
do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil
so that I take part in wicked deeds.

-psalm 141:3-4

all those years ago, emily spoke about how she'd pledged to herself never to participate in this practice of sin - let's just call it what it is. she is a smart wife for adopting this habit, and i've enjoyed giving my husband more respect by following suit.

i am serious about this habit. in fact, if you're a reader who knows me in "real life," hold me accountable. if you catch me speaking about my husband in a way that doesn't build him up, remind me i don't want to do that.

right now i just stopped and thought about how i'd feel if i knew my husband was talking about me with his friends in any way except a way that built me up. ouch. that would sting and cut to my core. don't you think so?

wifey friends, let's adopt these habits together:

-make it a practice to brag on our men. let's make sure our friends know that our husbands make us happy! watch your man smile when he hears you tell someone how much you love him. no, our husbands aren't perfect, but God gave them to us, and we can rejoice in that.

-if we have something negative we need to bring to our husband's attention, bring it to him privately and leave it there. our issues will be worked out in a much healthier way behind closed doors. together, we can seek God's will for our marriage and work on the things that need to be worked on.

-around others, don't let any words leave our lips that do not build our husbands up (eph 4:29), or that are reckless (prov 12:18). when we speak about our husbands around others, speak as though we are speaking God's own words (1 peter 4:11).

who's with me? let's honor our husbands with our words.

{rewind} gussied-up Christmas house

2011-01-08T10:13:00.010-05:00

i love how sweet+cozy our house looks for Christmas. it is so fun to get our space ready for family, ready for cuddling up together, and ready to celebrate the birth of our Jesus. it was SAD getting it all packed up this week...probably tougher for Clint who had to lug all the huge bins back to the shed. ;) this year it was even more fun to decorate because we were fresh from the CL fair and i had lots of ideas just brimming over. i spent lots of TV time in november making handmade details. one of my favorite parts about Christmas is putting up new ornaments that mark our year. this year, some of the new baubles we added were glittery lily mae + silas ornaments made by aunt paige, a coke can from our atlanta trip, and a tiny sweet sweater i found antiquing with birdie.

now i am really missing the garlands and the twinkly lights and my cute vintage trees and our advent calendar and my wreaths and the Christmas cards and our sweet tree full of reminders and memories. Christmas 2011, come quickly!!

{rewind} christmas in clarkton

2011-01-07T13:38:00.007-05:00

i've gotta get my mind off christmas so i won't be so depressed that it's over, but i need to record some of our sweet advent times here on the blog before i move completely on. :)

for the first time in several years, mi-mi and pop-pop had almost everyone under the same roof for a few precious hours. we exchanged some gifts, celebrated mi-mi and pop-pop's birthdays, ate crazy-good food, visited and caught up with each other, played pool, laughed at little ones, went to see grandmother & grandaddy in the nursing home, and rode pop-pop's golf cart right down college street (main street). a very merry clarkton Christmas!

i love this family of ours!!

making me smile

2011-01-07T13:29:00.003-05:00

-choosing to SEE. amazing amazing amazing amazing book. started it saturday, finished in tuesday. passed it on to mama on wednesday, and she texted me less than 24 hours later saying that she'd finished. then we chatted for about 30 minutes, ALL about it how awesome this book is. i could not put this priceless story down. what a testimony this incredible family has. they've been given a great pain to bear, and they have poured it at the feet of Jesus, offering it back to Him to make sure that His name is glorified. this mama's strength, humor, bravery, honesty...you will adore her after about half a page! READ IT.

*the chapmans' ministry is SHOW HOPE.

*and here's where you can find mary beth's blog.

-another amazing book, the one i finished just a few hours before starting choosing to see. i was on a roll! unbelievable true story that has me crying out and asking God to use me in huge ways this year.

now i need a new book, any ideas? the bar is high after these 2 great reads.

-my man in long johns. it is quite a sight.

-batch of peppermint chocolate cupcakes i made in december...we had too many so i popped some in a freezer bag and froze them. they were so yummy when i thawed them the other day. fresh, scrumptious cupcakes and all i had to do was pull them out of the freezer. (and then i made them even more sinful by filling them with target limited edition peppermint whipped cream).

-my boy's newly-aquired sleeping skills. i can certainly live with only one wake-up a night! thank you junebug!

-lily mae's super sweet manners and potty success!!!! i am begging and pleading God to help her stick with this!

-my fun new toy. the little pictures this cutie cranks out are so adorable.

-worshiping with my husband through streaming passion sessions. wish we were there SO bad. hoping we can make it happen next year.

-our continued 24 marathons. we're up to season 5, at least the 3rd time we've seen this one. oh well, we love it. :)

-$2.59 french baguettes from panera. just as cheap, but sooooo much better than loaves from the grocery store. this bread is dangerous in my house!

-rearranging stuff all over the house, maximizing space, cleaning out & purging, organizing, and making our surroundings ever more peaceful and cozy.

in 2011

2011-01-02T19:13:00.003-05:00

i want more

intentional alone time with ckb

Scripture saturation

healthy habits

opportunities to serve...and to jump in and act on them

shooting manually (scary)

sleep

one-on-one time with both of my babies

of Jesus

i want less

of listening to the Enemy

worry

junk in the house that we don't need

coke (yeah right)

of the stuff that doesn't make an eternal difference

----

Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “anyone who is thirsty may come to me! anyone who believes in me may come and drink! for the Scriptures declare, ‘rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ " -john 7: 37-38

solid food for silas! :)

2010-12-13T20:52:00.008-05:00

silas has been tasting different solid foods for several weeks now. his doctor told us we could start him on solids at his 4-month checkup, just to slowly introduce them to him. it's not about supplementing as much as getting him used to the experience of eating with a spoon, feeling the new textures, and getting just a teeny bit more satisfied throughout the day. we waited a few more weeks and then got going with trying it out. we're not on any sort of regimented schedule, we just feed him a little bit every day or every other day. once he's tried a new food for a few days without any signs of a reaction, we'll try something new. so far he hasn't batted an eye at any of it. he loves it all, and his tummy loves it all. no signs of allergies and no spitting it out. he is a true boy! he won't turn away food.

at one "meal," he'll eat about 1 to 1.5 ounces. 1 frozen cube from the ice cube tray equals about an ounce. we're really casual about his feedings right now. many days we won't feed him any solid food at all. i think we'll bump up his solid feedings soon, though. he LOVES the experience. just recently he's started grabbing the hand of whoever's feeding him, trying to shove the spoon in his mouth himself. he is an impatient little eater!

i've made all of his food and it is way too much fun. i made a lot of lily mae's food, but we started her out on store-bought because i didn't think there was any way i'd do it right if i tried it myself. once i relaxed a little and realized how easy it would be, i made some of her food in the big blender when she was a lot older. with silas i've really loved the process of making every bit of food that enters his mouth. it's SO super easy, so cheap, and so much fun. i think the biggest difference is in the smell - ha! when you pop open a jar of store-bought food, it just has this funny odor, i guess from the preservatives. i'm not saying it's bad for the baby, but for the parent it's kinda gross. :) all of silas' food smells so fresh and yummy, even after it's been frozen for awhile.

i don't use a steamer or a chopper or a food processor or any of the stuff the books say you have to use. :) i use my trusty little magic bullet knock-off (the same one i use for smoothies). it's so so simple and so easy to clean. i'll bake the veggie or fruit (following instructions on this great site and in this book i keep in the kitchen), let it cool a little, pop it in the rocket, pour it in ice cube trays, freeze, and then stick the frozen cubes in big labeled freezer bags. a whole half of our pull-out freezer drawer is devoted to his food, and it looks so pretty and colorful in there. i've been pleasantly surprised at how little time it takes. i make it in big batches and really don't spend much time in the kitchen at all, but the time goes by quickly because i LOVE peeling and cutting produce. i think it's so therapeutic. to thaw his food, i'll usually put 2 frozen cubes in a bowl and let them thaw in the fridge overnight for the next day. (we are obsessed with these from ikea. we have 2 sets and we blow through clean bowls in less than 3 days. LM eats eggs, yogurt, mac & cheese, fruit, and snacks out of these bowls, and now silas eats his solid meals out of them.) if i forget to do it the night before, the food gets soft in the microwave after only a few seconds.

really the only bad thing about making all of his food is no baby food jars! i just love them, and even if i had a pile of 100, i could find a use or a project to do with every last one. i really might go buy him a few jars just so i can reap the benefits. :)

our house has lots of quirks, and one is that we don't have a pantry. we put all our cereal, crackers, chips, nuts, and other snacky stuff in the cabinets next to the fridge. we have another kinda odd cabinet on the other side of the kitchen that looks like it was added on later. it's under all my jars of baking dry goods. (that i put on display because i truly love them. i think flour and sugar and cocoa are so pretty and they deserve beautiful big jars to live in, and to be surrounded in doilies...see? aren't these girls so pretty?)

inside this weird cabinet are canned food and all my other baking supplies like cookie cutters, mixes, oil, extracts, etc. the doors to this cabinet were begging for chalkboard paint, so when we painted our kitchen this spring, that's exactly what i did. for awhile i kept a list of easy meals written on the doors so if i wasn't feeling too inspired to cook, my list of simple stuff to make was right there. well i memorized that list before too long. haha. so when silas started eating solids, the door became solid-food-central. now i keep a list of all the food he can eat now, and below it is the quantity guidelines list the pediatrician sent home with us. i can't believe he's already tried everything on this list except for green beans and butternut squash. soon we'll move on to the 6-9 month list.

("xF" means can't be frozen. root veggies shouldn't be frozen for baby food because something happens to the chemicals in them and it could be harmful for babies. root veggies have to be prepared, refrigerated, and eaten within 3 days or thrown out.)

here's what his very first taste of solid food other than rice or oatmeal was like. we gave him peaches, which was lily mae's first food too. what can i say? you can take the girl out of georgia, but you can't take the georgia out of the girl. :)

the faces this boy makes when a new food hits his tongue are HILARIOUS. he started loving it soon after these gagging faces.

so there's our little process. sweet baby boy, as much as i hate seeing you grow so fast, it's a lot of fun to experience these new things with you!

shutterfly photo Christmas cards

2010-12-02T08:50:00.002-05:00

we've never used shutterfly for Christmas cards before. 2 years ago we printed out a 4x6 photo collage of LM's first 9 months and stuck those inside traditional cards. last year we happened to get a great family photo in front of the tree, i added some text to it, and adhered it to pretty cardstock. this year i'm looking for something less time-consuming, and something that can fit more than 2 photos. my address labels are already ready and waiting! now i just need to pick out a card i like and get them ordered.

i'm having a really tough time deciding which one i like best. i've had about 10 tabs open, all with cards i really love. clint's even been pulled in for his opinon and even then we only narrowed it down to 3 or 4. :)

shutterfly has SUCH cute options. you can choose how many photos you'd like to include, preferred color and card size, price range, paper finish, etc. this one is simple and modern and cute. this fun, fresh-looking card has a bird! (hello, i'm sold.) i LOVE the color combo in this one. and this adorable card is one that i might order for our closest family members. i've never seen that - what a creative way to showcase your year.

shutterfly also has beautiful invitations if you're throwing a Christmas soiree. there are colorful, more child-friendly designs as well as some elegant looks.

and photo calendars make crazy easy, cute Christmas presents. that'd make an awesome gift for grandparents, proud aunts and uncles, or for daddy's office.

fellow bloggers, did you know you can get 50 free cards? look here for this amazing promotion. thanks shutterfly!!

november is for gratitude: my 3 loves

2010-12-02T08:16:00.006-05:00

i thought i'd let my last 3 days of this little gratitude journey be about a few things i {love} about my 3 {loves}. we've had fun documenting these things both on the blog and on these cute journaling cards + envelopes that have hung all month at the top of our big picture window. i was a little sad to take them down, but a Christmas garland went up in its place. :)

11.28: SILAS

-for his heavenly smell!

-for his precious little snores...he sounds like an old man sleeping.

-for how he'll lift his head up when he's in my lap and he hears me talking. he just wants to see my face. i love that boy!!

-for the PRECIOUS dimples that form at the very top of his cheeks when he's laughing or grinning really big.

-for how he runs in place so hard when he's in the exersaucer. such a boy, rarin' to go.

-for how he still roots furiously against me, my face, clint, ANYTHING when he's really hungry.

-for the fact that he still needs to be swaddled. it's ok son, i'm not ready for you to grow up either. :)

11.29: LILY MAE

-for how intensely sweet and motherly she is with silas. if he's chewing on a blanket, she'll put on the softest voice and say "no no, baby brother, that's not fer you mouth." she kisses him and pets him and plays with him so patiently.

-for her curiosity and love for God. she is always pointing out what He made. yesterday she said "God made me my purple blanket."

-for (right now at least) her willingness to obey. she responds to being corrected and *usually* reacts well enough that we avoid a temper tantrum.

-for how she comes out of her room each morning, cheerful and sweet, ready to start the day.

-for her gorgeous blue eyes.

11.30: CKB

-for his sweet spirit, always so gentle with us. he nurtures this family so well, and his love for us just warms up this whole house.

-for how he holds my hand whenever he can, which isn't too often with 2 babies. :)

-for how he gives me a quick kiss when we park the car, before we climb out.

-for his heart for missions, for how excited he is to be able to listen to the stories of veteran missionaries.

-for his deep love for God and his passion to keep our family in the very center of His will.

november is for gratitude: nov 19-27

2010-11-28T15:05:00.009-05:00

**we've been so busy living out our GRATEFUL life this week that i've fallen way behind on my list!

11.19:

-for a day to keep making our house look more and more like Christmas. so exciting! :)

-for a super scrumptious dinner out with my parents, for ridiculously good chocolate cake, for a walk around the mall to see the newly lit Christmas tree.

-for my boy who is so so affectionate.

11.20:

-for leftover birthday cake.

-for my social butterfly girl who loves making new friends and chatting with everyone she comes in contact with.

-for fun new kitchen goodies.

-for a day so full that we both fall fast asleep on the sofa while we try to watch TV.

11.21:

-for an afternoon nap that made me feel like a new woman!

-for some much-deserved down-time for ckb.

-for avocados...silas loves them. he's tasting some solids almost every day and loving the experience.

11.22:

-for apples and flour and sugar and butter and eggs and pecans and my mixer. i have lots of thanksgiving baking to do and i adore every second of it!

-for my husband's patience.

-for a cute little pie bird who sits on the windowsill above my kitchen sink.

-for God who lavishes us with gifts we don't deserve.

-for fun making homemade Christmas gifts. LM is a great helper!

11.23:

-for packing up the babies and heading to the farm for quality time with family.

-for my favorite birdie-made comfort food: chicken and rice.

-for the hilarious things that come out of my mi-mi's mouth, made even funnier because she has NO idea that she's funny.

-for sitting on the porch swing with pop-pop, talking about God and about pastors, being reminded why i adore him so much.

-for 5:00 when clint's jeep rolled up my parents' driveway because it meant he was home for the rest of the week!

11.24:

-for a day with just my 3.

-for a taste of sweet potatoes for silas in honor of thanksgiving. :)

11.25:

-for silas' first thanksgiving. what a sweet sweet day.

-for lily mae's lovely voice explaining thanksgiving in her own words.

-for 21 people piled together at the farm, for precious mi-mi whose idea this was.

-for unexpected gifts.

-for a day spent EATING, watching excited children play, working in the kitchen, talking, catching up with each other, skeet shooting, football watching, praying, talking about God and the Great Commission and sin and the character of Jesus (an innocent little M&M questions game turned into a BIG theological discussion!), laughing in front of a massive bonfire at the edge of the woods. perfect day to be reminded of all the huge gifts God has lavished on us.

-for this big family who works hard, plays hard, and loves on each other hard.

11.26:

-for sleeping in and braving a couple stores later in the day.

-for lily mae jabbering ALL DAY about the fun she'd had with her second cousins the day before.

-for reuniting with the family at the farm for a big lasagna supper.

-for a late-night 24 date with clint.

11.27:

-for my husband who always smiles at the long honey-do list i keep. :)

-for how breathtakingly beautiful our house looks all gussied up for Jesus' birthday.

-for quality time with the family i'm thankful to have married into. proud and happy to be a beasley.

-for the sound of my husband and his brother laughing so hard, "getting" each other the way only brothers can, for jents's willingness to play hard with lily mae, climbing into her tiny tree tent when she asks him to.

our God is good to His core, friends! hoping you got to spend some sweet time with Him this week.

november is for gratitude: nov 15-18

2010-11-18T23:07:00.004-05:00

11.15:

-for a day to stay home with the babies and not worry about a single thing getting done.

-for sneaking in a tub soak during naptime. my first bath in probably 2 years! i just love my fresh new bathroom. :)
(but i have to sadly say that i dozed off after only a few minutes of soaking, so i figured i needed to hop out before truly falling asleep. this is why sleep-deprived mamas should not take baths)

-for putting up the christmas tree with clint after LM & S went to bed.

11.16:

-for crumbs in our bed, because they remind me that it's LM's very favorite spot in the whole house. she just loves climbing up and staying there, reading books or watching a show, and yep sometimes eating a cereal bar. :)

-for ckb's first recording session in his new studio. i could tell he loved every second of it. happy man behind a soundboard!

-for God's absolute sovereignty and protection, especially in parking lots when impulsive 2-year old girls choose not to obey.

11.17:

-for some time spent with mae & birdie.

-for these words rolling around in my heart all week:

'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
just to take Him at His word
just to rest upon His promise
and to know "thus saith the Lord"

Jesus, Jesus, how i trust Him
how i've proved Him o'er and o'er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus
oh, for grace to trust Him more

i'm so glad i learned to trust Thee
precious Jesus, Savior, Friend
and i know that Thou art with me
wilt be with me to the end

11.18:

-for the sweetest possible way to start my birthday: a 2:30 AM date with my husband to watch God put on a show in the sky. we put fleece jackets on over our pj's and brought along a pillow and a few blankets, and cuddled on the hammock for almost an hour to watch the meteor shower. reminded me of my birthday about 7 or 8 years ago when daddy woke us all up, birdie made hot chocolate, and we sat up lawn chairs in the driveway and watched meteors in the middle of the night. out here last night the sky was so clear and it was perfectly quiet. just me + my husband + our God.

-for a "cacker barrel" breakfast with my 3.

-for some time in the park swinging and sliding.

-for cards from my mi-mi that are always addressed to "mrs. clint beasley." she's the only one who does that, and it is so dear to me!

-for a good little nap.

-for a date with my husband. we ate and talked about goals and predictions for my year and loved being just us 2.

-for a little family birthday party at the farm (minus mae & phillip) with my favorite chocolate cake and some crazy-good presents from mama & dady.

-for 2 verrrry sleepy babies on our way home.

-for good news regarding PPM's daddy.

-for my man who i could not love one bit more.

november is for gratitude: nov 11-14

2010-11-14T23:09:00.005-05:00

11.11:

-for the birthday of my hilarious, one-of-a-kind uncle rick ("uncle bucka")

-for our freedom, for our heroes who fight for it, for pop-pop, for the reminder not to take our liberty for granted.

-for the anticipation of a sweet surprise from ckb.

-for an old navy date with maisy.

11.12

-for breaks in the middle of an 12-hour day of classes to scurry home and see my sweet boy.

-for mae who lovingly hung out with LM for the entire day, watching ariel and feeding her snacks, playing with her and loving on her.

-for the smell of paint and for clint's demands not to go in the bathroom. :)

-for a warm bed to collapse into after a long day, for a cozy husband to snuggle next to.

11.13

-for the birth of a perfect baby girl into the arms of friends who will make amazing parents.

-for closing a chapter and being encircled by friends who laid their hands on 2 of us and prayed for our future as we were sent out. getting this certification has been such a precious experience...much more spiritually than academically. these ladies saw me through the birth of my 2 babies, super challenging times at church when i questioned every single thing, the sweetest of highs in ministry life, the loss of our church home, and now the journey we are on to find out where God wants us. when Baptist women get together, you better believe there will be food and there will probably be tears. we cry because of our deep love for the way God designed children, and we spur each other on toward excellence for His Kingdom. it's been a privilege to do this with them, and i'm thanking God for the ways they've ministered to me.

-for coming home and being led to a fresh, pretty master bathroom that ckb somehow managed to paint and renovate while he took care of LM & silas this weekend.

-for making new friends.

11.14

-for a boy who only woke up twice last night, compared to his typical 3 or 4 times.

-for a reminder to be diligent about taking a Sabbath. after this weekend that looked nothing like a weekend, i will happily, joyfully take a Sabbath tomorrow!! can't wait!

-for straw bales, for my great-granny buie's quilt that i want desperately to steal from my mama, for a fire, for s'mores, for my girl's droopy eyes as she got more and more entranced by the fire, for a beautiful couple and the chance to capture their fairy tale love. a night that couldn't get any better.

-for my daddy who walked up our yard toward our fire tonight and said in the sweetest, most endearing way, "ain't country life great?" i want to always remember these precious little nuggets about my down-home daddy.

november is for gratitude: nov 8-10

2010-11-10T21:06:00.003-05:00

11.8

-for a fun early-morning activity that kept giggy occupied and made eating apples seem so exciting to her. all thanks to some thin apple slices and some mini cookie cutters!

-ckb + morning + Scripture + prayer...shapes the day for all 4 of us.

11.9

-for the first half of the day spent with lily mae in her pj's with her tutu on top.
("mama, can you put my dress to me?")

-for a visit from a friend and one of my dear former volunteers.

-for our HEALTHY boy whose thigh rolls are so deep that he needs diaper rash cream there. :)

-for a much needed backrub.

11.10

-for another silas + me wednesday.

-for cheeburger only 7 minutes away!

-for this. awesome.

-for capturing this perfect moment tonight. i love these 3 souls!

november is for gratitude: nov 3-7

2010-11-07T19:45:00.002-05:00

11.3

-for wednesday mornings that are just me + silas time.

-for a decent slot of time in the afternoon to plan for Christmas, get some presents scratched off the list, and even finish a couple cute projects. only 2 more weeks until we get to put the tree up! :)

-for my girl's heart being filled with adventures found in God's Word. who knows who she learned about today??

11.4

-for a husband who came back to bed after his shower, kissed silas, and said "guess who's staying home with his family today?" oh what a VERY SWEET surprise.

-for a rare thursday lunch date with my 3 loves.

-for running into one of my favorite ladies on the planet in goodwill. KJ is the kind of mama i aspire to be!

-for lily mae's curious mind and playful spirit. we had to tear her away from the paint for supper time.

11.5

-for a visit from uncle jentson and laura. laura got to meet her cousin for the first time!

-for bacon + biscuits + eggs + grits + cinnamon rolls for supper.

11.6

-for a husband who took time out of his weekend to speak at a conference about stewardship. i love that man's heart.

-for oreo gelati!

-for pizza at our favorite spot.

11.7

-for meeting new people and trying out new things with my husband at my side.

-for a quick nap with my sweet boy.

-for that same sweet boy's crazy happy chuckles.

walnut apple muffins

2010-11-07T19:12:00.003-05:00

these are hearty, yummy, perfect-for-fall muffins.

preheat oven to 350.

combine in medium or large saucepan:
1 C water
2 C sugar
2 C grated apples (it is SO fun and therapeutic to grate apples!)
2 sticks butter
2 t cinnamon
2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ground cloves

bring to a boil. remove pan from heat, let cool completely.

in a large bowl, stir together:

1/2 C chopped walnuts (or more/less to taste)
2 t baking soda
3 1/2 C AP flour (whole wheat flour makes them even more wholesome)
generous sprinkling of ground flax seed
*sometimes i add a handful or 2 of oats to the mix - this is super yummy too - makes for great breakfast muffins. (and oatmeal is good for a mama's milk supply!)

stir the apple mixture into the dry mix, put batter in muffin tins, and bake for about 15 minutes.

november is for gratitude - nov 2

2010-11-02T22:28:00.003-04:00

tonight i'm thanking God for...

-my son's HUGE grins. they are so cute that they are a little bit heartbreaking. he'll have a serious, very inquisitive expression, and then this gigantic, wide grin will slowly spread across his chubby cheeks if you smile at him first. it looks exactly like he's flirting, and he has got me in the palm of his hand. goodness do i love that boy!

-my girl's happy singing voice. she has such a good ear already, and she just loves to sing. this morning i started singing one of her favorite songs, and she joined in and then literally sang every song, in order, from the little ipod playlist that clint plays for her when they're in the car together.

-the sound of her and her daddy's laughter from our room as he's getting her ready for bed.

-my sister and mama. loved our day of pj's and planning time with them today. :)

november is for gratitude - nov 1

2010-11-01T17:25:00.003-04:00

tonight i am feeling extra thankful for:

-chilly weather!

-a day that allowed us to stay put, with no tasks outside the walls of our house. it was the kind of day when i showered just to get into a fresh pair of pj's (and flannel ones! even better. they're red with snowflakes, and when lily mae saw me in them today she said "i like your christmas!") :)

-a happy, busy preschooler. she's independent and so clever, and i love hearing and watching her play.

-learning opportunities intentionally sprinkled throughout the day for her. she has little bits of God's Word hidden in her heart, and i know it's one of the most important things i can do as her mama. such a sweet sound to our ears to hear that lovely child's voice reciting Scripture to herself, all on her own, in her room while she plays or puts herself to sleep. i know it's a sweet sound to her Father's ears too.

-an easy fall comfort supper in the oven...bacon-rosemary-cream of mushroom chicken and his-and-hers potatoes (sweet potato for him, mashed yukons for me)

-a husband who comes home and calms us down after a weird fussy-silas day.

-the memory of my sweet friend. it's hard for me to believe it's been 10 years that she's been in heaven. i remember the details of that wednesday night as if this all happened last week. i'm praying for her wonderful family today and trusting in the promise that God is giving them unimaginable peace.

-remembering that my man, 2 years before we started dating, was at her candlelit grief service at church, even though he never met her. he was there because he knew lots of his friends were mourning, and he wanted to pray. i can't wrap my mind around the fact that God knew then that i'd always remember that detail, and that i would love remembering how clint has always been the kind of man who lifts his loved ones up in prayer and shows up to be a good friend. what a precious thought. i could feel Him taking care of me then, comforting me and teaching me to take cover in Him. but i didn't know He was also using clint to minister to me. we have an amazing Saviour.

cluck cluck

2010-10-31T21:34:00.004-04:00

here's our little rooster and our farm girl. they are so lovable and irresistible.

{thank you, martha}

i'm still loving the idea of costumes that somehow relate to their year, so since lily mae fell in love with birdie and pop's chickens this year, this was an easy choice. this is also the year that she fell in love with silas, so i like that he got to be the little object of her affection. :)

we've had a super fun weekend of wedding dress shopping (and finding! yayyy), engagement celebrating, yummy food eating, moonbouncing, thrifting, fall festivaling, and trick-or-treating (silas' brand-new trick: rolling over...and lily mae's abundant sweet treats from birdie and pop).

i wish we had some actual trick or treaters, but i think the kids on our street go to actual neighborhoods, just like mae & i did when we were growing up down a gravel road. one of the ONLY disadvantages to country life!

tonight my love & i are eating pizza, snugglin', and reuniting with jack bauer after a little hiatus.

happy halloween!!!

(starting november is for gratitude tomorrow...who wants to join me?)

for today: october 28

2010-10-28T15:26:00.004-04:00

from the simple woman's daybook

outside my window...leaves that are changing! beautiful, Lord!! i'm excited for cool weather this weekend and i hope it stays.

i am thinking...about how wonderful thanksgiving will be. some of you are blessed enough to know my sweet mi-mi. well when one of her sisters died and left her some money, mi-mi decided she wanted to use it so that my mama's whole side of the family could spend thanksgiving together. so most of us will be up here. birdie and daddy are cooking/hosting, and mi-mi and pop-pop are making sure that it's financially possible for everyone to be here. i can't wait! i love my family with my whole heart, and we don't get to see each other near enough. and silas has a second cousin who was born just a week after him who we haven't met!! i want to get my hands on you, knox!

i am thankful for...good, godly husbands for my friends. i love seeing my friends happy and taken care of.

from the kitchen...nothing too thrilling this week...empty pantry and fridge since coming back from vacation. today i'm making chocolate chip cookies, but that's all that's happening in the kitchen this week, except for box mac & cheese and ham biscuits. ha.

i am wearing...boring SAHM clothes :)

i am creating...silas' costume and it is so so so adorable. thank you, martha. :) it involves feather boas! lily mae's is more like putting store-bought pieces together. they'll both look mighty cute. i've never loved halloween that much, but kidlets sure do make it lots of fun.

i am going...on a date with my 2 boys tonight! to my favorite place (who knows it?). birdie and lily mae are dying for some time together, so they're having a little sleepover.

i am reading...just finally finished this, but i'm still digesting it. i turned down lots of pages and i'm still going back and thinking/praying more about a lot of what he said. i've certainly been convicted that i often silence the Holy Spirit. i want to hear Him loud and clear!

i am hoping...that our superman starts sleeping through the night soon. he's certainly fat enough, and he eats like crazy in the evening. he slept through the ENTIRE night last week, the first night we spent in the hotel. lily mae did the *exact* same thing when we took her to atlanta (like a couple of crazies) at only 7 weeks. we woke up the next morning ready to freak out because she'd slept the whole night. of course it was a one-time fluke, and silas' night last week seems to be a one-time thing, too. pleeeeeease son, we're tired.

i am hearing...silas' grunts. he's playing on his play mat and LM is napping.

around the house...calm! i made sure our house was clean and neat before we left for atlanta, and i'm sooo glad i did. it's so nice coming home to a pretty house instead of one in chaos. amazingly we've managed to keep it clean since coming home late monday night (really more like wee hours of tuesday morning).

one of my favorite things...christmas stuff out in stores. yay!

a few plans for the rest of the week...halloween fun stuff, projects around the house, and celebrating maisy & phillip with his family. :)

picture thought i am sharing...isn't this girl so beautiful? that's clint's Bible. i love that she sees her daddy read this book, so she knows it must be important.

country living fair in atlanta

2010-10-27T16:25:00.012-04:00

holy moly. this poor blog hasn't been updated in more than 3 weeks.

i have lots of pictures and stories to share!! but i'll start first with photos from the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G country living fair. i love love love the magazine. by far my favorite one to eat right up every month, cover to cover. my parents and their friends steve + mary have gone to the ohio CL fair twice now, and they rave about it. when i was flipping through the magazine several months ago and saw an ad about them coming to stone mountain, i flipped out. we knew we wanted to take a little family vacation in the fall, once life as a family of 4 settled down a bit, but we hadn't decided yet what we'd do. we LOVE atlanta, so it was an easy choice. then paige and andrew hopped on to our trip and it got even sweeter sounding. :) birdie has so many pictures of mae & i romping around on the lawn in front of stone mountain when we were little. i've got lots of memories there, so it holds a precious little place in my heart.

i think we'll definitely be making a trip to ohio or atlanta next fall for it...unless they decide to add one even closer to us. everywhere we looked we saw project and decorating ideas! i told paige the danger wasn't how much money we'd spend at the fair, but how much we'd spend at michael's once we got home. i have so many projects i'm dying to try! and lots of christmas present ideas. :)

i was so proud of us for saving up a nice little chunk of change to spend on our trip, and amazingly i think i only spent $40 or so at the fair (kinda sad!). there was lots i COULD have grabbed, but i tried to be good. i got a christmas present for clint's mom, some christmas odds & ends for us, and a cute magnet board for above our computer desk. other than that, just lots and lots of pictures + ideas.

anyway, here is some of the cuteness we saw while we were there.
(i only remember the names of the shops of a few of these...oops).

here we are with the adorable jenni bowlin. i couldn't wait to see her cute booth packed with vintage goodies. her bingo cards are sprinkled all over our house.

and here's modern june's CUTE tent. she's a richmonder! :) i got her oilcloth banners a few months ago to decorate the playroom and people always comment on them. she sold a TON of oilcloth at the fair. looooove.

10/2 is for adding members to the family

2010-10-03T17:58:00.005-04:00

10.2.09

we had been trying for another baby for a couple months and i was getting a little tired of seeing negative pregnancy tests. i knew it would be time to test right around our moving day, and i was DYING to see if this would be our month, but just in case it turned out to be positive, i wanted the memory to take place in our new house. we had had so many sweet moments in the condo, several memories that i was sad to be walking away from...all our first holidays as a married couple, finding out about lily mae, setting up her nursery, bringing her home from the hospital, all her first holidays...so as impatient as i was to test, we waited until we were in our house. we moved wednesday, spent the night at the farm since our beds weren't set up yet, and had our first night in our house on thursday night. friday morning we woke up to such beautiful, happy news...a new sweet baby was coming our way. :)

10.2.10

maisy got a FIANCE!!!

i'm so tickled that this awesome man is joining our family. he and mae don't know how often i've prayed for God to send her a humble man who would adore the ground she walks on...and phillip exceeds all those wishes. :)

we love you both and we're all soooooo excited for this adventure ahead of you!!

and selfishly, I AM SO STINKIN' EXCITED TO GET THE PLANNING STARTED!!!

woohooooooooooo!!

things i'm loving this week:

2010-09-30T10:03:00.002-04:00

-this book. my toes aren't too happy - they're being stepped on. ouch. this is a humbling read! i am super guilty of making the Holy Spirit the "lesser" being of the Trinity. this book is challenging me to pray through that and make a change.

-pulling out a new season of clothes for the kiddos and it feeling that Christmas morning. i always forget all the hand-me-downs and gifts...makes the chore a little more exciting.

-stretching LM's abundant summer wardrobe into fall...white long-sleeve tees are a beautiful thing!

-new charlie hall. candy for the ears and soul.

-RAIN.

-windows open, pumpkin candle burning.

-sister wives. (i'm hanging my head in shame as i type those words.)

-studying for my LAST certification course...thinking about the hearts of preschoolers and loving that God's timing is so perfect. He saved this as my last course and He knew i'd have a little preschooler right now. :)

-the big wire basket of pretty cloth napkins and towels that has recently enabled us to have analmost paperless kitchen. spending money on things that go almost directly in the trash irritates the stew out of me!

-texts, emails, and messages from yall with encouraging words about my last post. love you, friends.

-easy, healthy comfort food suppers that are put together in under 10 minutes, popped in the oven, and ready 1.5 hours later.

-celebrating a year of memories in our precious house. still so thankful that it came our way. i just love our nest. this day last year was so exciting and busy - full of so many trips back and forth from the condo, friends and family helping us out, pizza eaten around the island, boxes boxes boxes, and a sweet "date" in the middle of the day for me and clint to go sign the papers. we were dancing in God's blessings!

-the sweet little relationship i have with my son right now. he is just so affectionate and so cuddly. he loves to be held all the time, and if i can't hold him, he's happy to sit in his bouncer nearby and watch me cook, or get ready in the bathroom, or work at the computer. if we can't get him to go to sleep and we know he's full and changed, he will usually drift off as long as i get close and he can feel or smell me. i'm so happy to revel in this, because his big sister was sooo not like that. she was daddy's girl from the very start. didn't matter that i had carried her for 40 1/2 weeks or that i fed her...she only had eyes for clint. silas is my little lovebug and i LOVE it.

-my imaginative little girl's antics and thoughts. the other night i was tucking her in and she said "your hair is clean!!" as if it was so rare and shocking to her. :) hahahaha. yesterday we were out to lunch with birdie and a man with a bunch of tattoos was sitting next to us. she's seen tattoos before (hello aunt mae), but she must have really noticed them this time. she pointed at him and said, "look! he have lotsa colors!" then last night she got fixated with the idea that God was in our front yard, walking up to the house, and wanting to come inside. she stood at the window screen and kept saying "there's God! hi God!" then she took clint's hand and led him to the door, where she said God was waiting. i couldn't make this up if i wanted to, people. i love that girl.

-my super hard-working husband who has put in tons of hours this week, both at his salaried job and this job. i miss him, though. :( cannot wait to get that man home tonight for 3 days!!

-a really good excuse to eat some ice cream with fresh strawberries last night: i'm getting a little cold and i told myself the vitamin C would do some good. :)

-sweet friend's oscillococcinum advice. fingers crossed that it's working.

do not love:

-that my obsession with modern family was interrupted twice yesterday: once during oprah when local news kept interrupting with footage of obama's visit. then during the actual episode last night, the rain knocked it out for us. bummer.

6 months

2010-09-29T11:19:00.004-04:00

this week makes 6 months that we've not been part a church family. i catch myself really missing the intimate belonging that comes with being a church member. i miss the sense of being "known," i miss the familiarity, and i really miss the history. between me and clint, we'd been a part of that church family for 38 years. there was a real sense of comfort in knowing mostly everyone, having our memories rooted there, and feeling like we were a part of the family. we met, fell in love with each other, and married there. we both were baptized as children there. our parents had attended and been members there. we became parents there. for a time, my mama and i worked there together. i spent 6 years serving and leading a ministry i loved with my entire heart. to say that it hurt to break apart from that church family is a gigantic understatement.

but yall, most of you are close enough to us that this goes without saying, (and some of you also know this firsthand)...for us, it was not a healthy family. it quit functioning as a family a long time ago. we weren't being fed anything substantial. we were satisfied only through serving, and God was incredibly faithful to give us hearty doses of satisfaction through our ministry. we put our focus there and tried as hard as we could to ignore the parts we really detested. my husband can tell you how many frustrated nights i cried and cried, disappointed in leadership, sad about families who kept leaving, mad about the way people we loved were treated. even more about that "family" was revealed after we left; when our pastor never spoke another word to us, never checked on us, never let us know he was praying for us. when people we considered family members decided it was too awkward to try to salvage a relationship with us. when we were informed that rumors were swirling, and we didn't hear of leaders doing anything to set the record straight.

the thing that bothered me the most, the thing that still bothers me today, is that so much of what happened was a poor reflection of the deep love that Jesus has for His Church, and not just our little slice of the story, but so much of what has happened in the past several years. the global Church is vastly imperfect - duh - it's made up of imperfect people desperate for God's mercy. i don't have this romanticized vision that somewhere out there exists a perfect, peaceful church body that always meets God's standard. but nevertheless, we are His Bride, and that is serious. we won't always get it right, but His Bride deserves to be led by humble, Godly, focused people. those types of church bodies do exist, and we've been introduced to several of them lately. :)

6 months ago when we were stung, blistered, shocked, and deeply hurt, when i was wondering about the financial well-being of our growing family, when i was driving my 2-year-old to work for those last 2 horrible weeks, dreading hearing her say "friends!" when we pulled into the parking lot...even in the midst of that nastiness, God kept whispering to both of us "rescue." oh my goodness did He mean it. He knew how exhausted we were of staying put. we had stayed because we felt like He had a purpose for us there, and i still know that He did. but we were getting less and less effective the more frustrated we got. He saw our frustration, turned His ear toward us, and lifted us right up out of it. there is nothing to say to Him about that except thank You, Lord. praise You!

everything i just wrote sounds so whiny, and i'm sorry about that. :) but the rescue isn't nearly as sweet without the suffering that comes before it. because of the junk we experienced, we have a very deep appreciation for His precious Church, for Him. the Church isn't buildings and staff members and programs; the Church is the worldwide communion of His disciples. even though we severed ourselves from a small "slice" of the Church, the worldwide Church was still alive and active in our story. our friends, many of whom had never been a part of our former church, ministered to us and prayed for us and played the role of the Church in our lives.

and the sweetest thing that came out of all of this is that we were forced to sink our satisfaction solely in Him, because we severed ourselves from the piece of Church we'd been connected to for so many years. it allowed us to shut out distractions and focus on our precious Jesus. Jesus is so very wonderful, and the time i've spent with Him during this season will stick with me forever. what a Savior we have.

He is still working on healing and redeeming pieces of this journey, and i know He will require some things of us that may not be comfortable. but while i know it's not completely over and behind us, i am so so thankful for how He's brought us out of it. i'm thankful that what we lost does not even begin to compare to the lessons and richness and joy we've gained. He gave us a unit, this family togetherness, so that we could face this together and cling to each other. He gave us an extended faith family who has shown up and given us support, encouragement, and prayers. He never ever changes. He is always the same.

how richly our God pours out His blessings on His children. wow.

"You are my hiding place;
You will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance. " - psalm 32:7

for today: september 22, 2010

2010-09-22T14:32:00.004-04:00

from the simple woman's daybook

outside my window...HEAT, even though it's the first day of fall.

i am thinking...about how excited i am for this tonight:

i am thankful for...a fun first day of CBS for lily mae. she was so upset when we were driving home - when she recognized our road, she said "no!! time for more church!" :)

from the kitchen...gelati in the freezer! i love savoring a teeny bit at a time and saving it for several days. mmmm.

i am wearing...a summer top that i'm sick of seeing. birdie and i were just chatting today about how tired we are of summer clothes. come on fall!!

i am creating...silhouettes for lots of sweet mama friends.

i am going...to bust with excitement the closer we get to vacation - one month!

i am reading...a book that is majorly stepping on my toes; it's about the hundredth reminder that we need to start trusting God to take care of the details and to remember how fully He's proven to us, over and over again, that He is faithful.

i am hoping...that my son's cheeks aren't permanently scarred from the thousands of kisses i smother on them daily.

i am hearing...my sneaky daughter playing in her room, avoiding a nap with all her might.

around the house...organization! love it, however short-lived it may be. :)

one of my favorite things...dove peanut butter promises. evil evil evil.

a few plans for the rest of the week...talking about God the Creator with LM.
her verse this week:
"the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."
-psalm 24:1. she LOVES reciting her verses. :)

picture thought i am sharing...my kitchen windowsill. i think this is a good life rule, don't you?

fixing lunch

2010-09-17T13:14:00.002-04:00

while you are sleep deprived AND deep in thought makes for a distracted cook.

not a good idea.

my mac & cheese tasted like a salt lick.

ooops.

thursday thoughts (lots of 3's)

2010-09-16T15:40:00.004-04:00

-3 day weekend with my 3 starts in just an hour!! cannot wait.

-hopping over to my favorite consignment sale (3rd one in 3 weeks...it's a sickness) on saturday morning. i am on the hunt for clothes for this growing boy!!

-speaking of growing, his nurse and doc today at his 3-month check-up could not stop talking about his size. i love my little (big) chunker. he's gained another 1 3/4 pounds this month. and the doctor said we can start him on cereal soon. not ready for that yet. we're definitely waiting several more weeks. i'd forgotten how sad it makes me to hear them start talking about all the stuff the baby's ready for...cereal, being put to bed awake (ha!), etc. he's still my newborn in my mind.

-silas is smiling, chuckling, talking, and squirming all the time. he's so lovable.

-our giggy has been sick the past couple of days, but also extra cuddly and needy. she is getting to be so independent that i LOVE this little dose of extra affection. :) she had to miss her first day of CBS, but birdie came back with a full report from her sweet teachers. i can't wait to see her walk in her room next week!

-i learned a very important lesson about her last night. we're borrowing a sweet white bookshelf from birdie and pop. for a few months now, ever since LM's moved out of her crib, we've moved ALL of her toys and books out of her room so she won't have any temptations or distractions during naptime. but she is so good about naptime and she's happy to just have "quiet" time in her room even if she's not sleeping, so i decided to move a shelf of books back in her room. so last night while clint was getting her ready for bed, i moved the shelf in and stocked it with all her books (way more than we possibly need, by the way). when she was ready, i got her all excited and told her i had a surprise for her. and when we walked into her room, she took one glance and said "NOOOO!" i knew immediately exactly what was wrong, so i put my hands on her shoulders and turned her little body around so she could see where her baby doll's bed had been moved to, but that was not OK with her. i thought she was going to have a meltdown and that the shelf would never be seen again, but finally after a few minutes of...umm...attitude adjusting, she got happy and was able to show a little bit of (forced) gratitude. that's what a mama gets for trying to surprise her strong-willed toddler! ;) thankfully she is enjoying her books today!

-i'm so glad to have grown up with a mama who can cook and who taught me how to make my favorite meals. mmmm. i just love the way that woman makes food!

-atlanta in 5 weeks!!!! can you stand it PPM?!

-we have boxes and boxes in the shed of all sorts of stuff that we obviously don't need, and i'm sick of it. i spent all my evenings this week purging craft stuff that i haven't touched in a really long time. now i have several boxes set aside for our next yard sale, unless any of my lovely local ladies want some stuff?

-i'm so ready for jeans and boots and sweaters and bonfires and pumpkins and apple picking. the hay bales all over rockville make my heart so happy and hungry for fall.

-potty training is not for wimps. that's all i have to say about that.

-happy weekend, friends.

"but as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
i have made the Lord God my refuge,
that i may tell of all Your works."

-psalm 73:28

wordless wednesday

2010-09-15T11:24:00.003-04:00

my great-aunt opal's oatmeal cookies

2010-09-15T11:12:00.005-04:00

a recipe that always gets me excited for fall:

mix:

1 egg
1 C sugar
1 C butter
1 T molasses

then gradually mix in dry mix:
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
2 1/2 C oats
1 C chopped nuts (optional)
2 C AP flour

bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. DON'T overbake.

to make these really over the top, add paula's recipe for brown butter icing:

*this icing is super sweet, so if you decide to ice your cookies, cut some of the sugar out of the cookie batter.

in a small saucepan, heat 1 stick butter over medium heat until melted and golden brown, stirring occasionally. remove from heat. stir in 3 C powdered sugar, 1 t vanilla, and whisk in enough tablespoons water to make a drizzling consistency. let cool a little, then drizzle icing over warm cookies using a whisk or small spoon.

yumm!! enjoy! :)

beautiful girl

2010-09-14T13:05:00.003-04:00

like a lily among the thorns, so is my darling among the maidens.

-song of solomon 2:2

marriage habits and rhythms - part 2

2010-09-13T16:24:00.001-04:00

ok, this next habit is a kinda silly one, it will take a little explanation, and it only applies to me (not my husband). this one gives me a good perspective about my role as c's wife, and i picked it up from an episode of wife swap. no shame. :)

i don't even remember the specifics of the episode, but i believe that the 2 extremes were 1 wife whose husband didn't life a finger in the house, who depended on his wife for everything; and 1 wife who was a bit more independent and who relied on her husband for a lot of the household tasks. i didn't wholeheartedly agree with the lifestyles of either wife, but the serving wife said something so simple but SO profound to me. she was talking about her choice to take care of her husband's needs and she said something along these lines:

"if my husband wanted to come home after a long work day and cook and clean for himself, then he would be a bachelor."

i rewound that and listened to it probably 3 times, and i had instant respect for this woman. i don't think she thought she was saying anything with earth-shattering importance, but i loved what she said.

clint is really good at helping me around the house. he usually doesn't need me to ask for a little help, but if i do have to ask, he happily helps. and i can definitely use that as a crutch. if i feel lazy and don't want to load the dishwasher, i can find myself thinking well i'll just ask clint to do it later. there's nothing wrong with asking him to help, but my attitude should be one ofservice to him.

he is a husband, not a bachelor. he has responsibilities he wouldn't have if he didn't have a wife and children. if he was single, he would only have his meals, his housing, his insurance, his stuff to pay for. he would be able to spend his time doing just about anything he wanted to do. but he has 3 other people depending on him, so he has a lot on his shoulders.

and if i was a single lady, i'd have all MY own stuff to take care of - my insurance, my housing, etc. but i don't. my husband helps me out with that (it used to be a little more shared, but for the past couple of months, it's all been on him. my new full-time job doesn't pay - haha).

so since he provides for our family, i need to remember that his life should look a LOT different than if he was a bachelor. yes, i can depend on him for tasks here and there. he's always the one to take the trash out, take the compost out, deal with car issues, and tons of other big and small chores. and sometimes he takes over with the things that are usually "mine" - like cooking, dishes, laundry, cleaning, etc. he's especially done this a lot the past few months, since i've had my hands a little fuller than normal. :) BUT his day-to-day life should look different than if he was a single man. there are needs that should be taken care of for him, just like i (and our children) have needs that he bears all on his own.

i know we all know this, but that little statement on wife swap greatly helped my attitude. yes, i know that i serve my husband because we're a team and we give and take. but it helped my attitude because i want my husband to FEEL like a husband. i want him to feel like his wife is taking care of him, even spoiling him. ;) i've always said it would be a great compliment to me if he didn't quite know how to take care of himself should something happen to me and i wasn't here anymore. i know that's a bit extreme and maybe old-fashioned, but i take pride and find deep joy in meeting my sweet man's needs, in serving him, just as i know he takes pride in leading our family and providing for us.

what are your thoughts about this? do you think your husband's life is different, better, because he's married? does his life look different than a single man's?

we miss you...

2010-09-07T17:10:00.007-04:00

...which is why we started re-watching season 2 the other night.
**because really, jack is much too emotional in season 1, and the action isn't truly good until the start of season 2 anyway...too much kim & teri love/distraction in season 1. my favorite jack version is too-busy-torturing-terrorists-to-be-distracted-by-familial-love-jack.

i'd forgotten so much, and i'd especially forgotten how deeply i love this show.

but as soon as it started, i whispered to clint "i immediately regret this decision," ron burgundy style. it will just be torture to watch the whole thing again, and fall back in love, just to be reminded that it's gone forever. :(

silas' birth story

2010-09-07T10:20:00.005-04:00

it's been 11 weeks, and details are already SUPER fuzzy, so i better do this now before i can't remember. :)

when i was either 37 or 38 weeks pregnant (see? already can't remember), my doctor got us to schedule an induction date 5 days after silas' due date just in case. she had told me at my 36 week appointment that she was very sure he'd be early, and i believed her, so this induction date meant nothing to me. i just KNEW he'd come earlier than that on his own. she put the date on her calendar in pencil, and she and clint and i all agreed that we could even back out of the induction date, even if it arrived, if i didn't want to do it. she knew i'd delivered LM without an epidural and she knew i wanted to try to do it again with silas, and obviously getting induced lowers the chance of that happening. so we all knew it wasn't our best-case scenario, but we penciled it in anyway.

of course, his due date came and went. we had an appointment that week, and my sweet doctor told me i could come in every day the next week before his induction date (thursday) and get checked if i wanted to. she had mentioned that if i got to 5-6 cm, she'd consider that active labor and we could just go next door to the hospital and either wait, or get some pitocin to "augment" labor. i spent that weekend (saturday was his date) waiting and resting and feeling NOTHING. i had a little pressure all over, but i was convinced it was him out-growing my belly and making things feel over-stretched. i remembered what contractions felt like with LM, and this was nothing like that.

monday morning we had our past-due-date appointment to see how happy he was. i had a L-O-N-G ultrasound so they could measure my fluid, see if he was still moving a lot, and to estimate his weight....good thing they weren't taking my blood pressure when the teach said "9 pounds, 5 ounces." after the ultrasound we chatted with my doctor and she felt very sure that i wouldn't make it to thursday's induction date, but IF i did, we should certainly go ahead with it because of his size. she has 2 young children, and i love that her work schedule isn't too heavy. there are only a handful of days a month when she is on call for 24 hours, and thursday was one of them, so since we really wanted her to deliver silas, we all agreed that thursday would be the day if tuesday and wednesday still found me pregnant. :)

that appointment on monday also proved that i was having some contractions. they hooked me up to the monitor and i was having them about every 3.5 minutes, but they were SO light that i had to really pay attention to notice them. my nurse nicole came in the room about 10 minutes into the monitoring and was shocked that i wasn't in pain, because they were showing up as fairly intense. she chalked it up to having survived a med-free birth already.

the rest of the day monday, the contractions picked up in intensity just a tad, but they were super irregular. tuesday was the same story. i started getting really antsy on tuesday night, and i was convinced i had dilated a lot more (on monday i was 4). so clint and i went in first-thing wednesday morning so i could get checked, and we were really hoping they would find out i was at least at 6 and that they'd send us straight next door to get admitted. my doctor wasn't working on wednesday, so i saw another really sweet doctor, but i was stunned when she told me i was "at 4, MAYBE 4 1/2 cm." i tried hard not to be disappointed, but she had some really reassuring words. she reminded us that we really wanted dr. B to deliver him, and that she wasn't even working that day. it didn't make sense to me why i wasn't dilating, but she said that sometimes when a baby's head is that big (his was measuring as if i was 43 pregnant - per the ultrasound), it puts the wrong kind of pressure on your cervix and you just stop dilating. LM was with birdie, so dr. V told us to go enjoy some time alone and to get all the pre-admission stuff out of the way. so we ran a couple errands, grabbed lunch, and came back to the hospital for labwork and to answer the 5,943 questions that were SO annoying to answer when i was in very active labor with LM. i was so happy to get these out of the way early this time!!

we enjoyed some very sweet and tender moments with LM that night, got a surprisingly good night's sleep, and woke up early on thursday morning to go to the hospital. birdie came over and she and LM saw us off before they headed back to the farm for lily mae camp. :) because we are beasleys and because it's what we do, we were about 15 minutes late. i was so calm and so happy (and so NOT in pain) that clint dropped me off at the entrance of the women's pavilion and went and parked the car. when he was done, he came and found a nurse to take him to our room and i was already changed into the hospital gown and tucked in bed. SO very different than with lily mae...with her my water had broken in the car and i was almost in transition when we arrived at the hospital, 28 hours into labor. with her, clint emergency-parked outside of the hospital and helped me hobble inside with soaking-wet pj pants.

around 9 or 9:30, my precious, calm, laid-back, PERFECT nurse, esme, started the pitocin on a low level. dr. B had visited, checked me (no change since the day before), and we'd talked about the plan for the day. she told me she'd break my water in a few hours if it didn't happen on its own. we spent the morning gnawing on ice chips, taking a very few sips of orange gatorade, watching the today show, and chatting. i tried to get some rest but i was too excited.
the contractions definitely started picking up in intensity, but they were very easy to deal with until about 11:30 or 12. dr. B came and broke my water at noon, and i started getting hugely uncomfortable. i tried every position i could think of, most of which proved to not be helpful. he was putting a LOT of pressure really low in my bottom and i thought the birthing ball would help. they had to search several rooms to find it, but they finally did, and it was a huge huge huge relief. i rolled around on it and barely bounced, but somehow it took a lot of the pressure away. clint was sitting behind me or to the side of me in a rolling desk chair and he would let me sink back and put all my weight on him when a contraction came. eventually i wanted to lean forward onto his chest, so he moved that way, and it was so relaxing and helpful. i'd just inhale very deeply, smell his wonderful familiar smell, and wait for the contraction to let up. heavenly. :)

around 1 or 1:30, i started to get a little panicky. LM's labor was so so long, and it gave my body plenty of time to get used to it. this time around, the progression was sickeningly fast and the contractions quickly piled on top of each other, with very little break in between. i asked esme if the pitocin was all the way up, and she said it was. i desperately needed it to be turned down, so she did, but nothing changed. she said my body had just taken over and was laboring on its own now. that made me seriously wonder whether or not i could keep going this way. i spent several contractions with my eyes squeezed shut, daydreaming about how wonderful it would be to fall asleep and wake up with silas in my arms. :) i just needed it to be OVER.

dr. B came back several times and checked me. she told us to expect about a cm every hour, so we would definitely have him here by suppertime. i remember feeling bad about that because we had told my family that we thought he'd definitely be here by early afternoon. well instead, she checked me and i began dilating a cm every FIFTEEN MINUTES. when i was at 9 1/5, i begged my nurse to check me about every 30 seconds because i was DYING to push. she just looked at my face, could tell i was needing to push, and called dr. B without checking me. dr. B rode over to the hospital from her office in a golf cart, ran in, and started getting ready before even checking me. she was HUSTLING and oh man did i love her for that. she checked me, we all shouted hallelujah when she said i was at 10, and i screamed "i have to push now!!" she RAN over to the side of the room to get her shoe covers on, threw more scrubs on, and made it back over to the bed after i'd already started. it was about 2:51. the tv was still on, even though we hadn't been paying attention to it for a couple hours, and it was news footage of the oil spill. i grabbed clint and asked him to turn it off, because i didn't want to welcome our son to the world and have nasty images on black gunky oil in my head. :) dr. B was so awesome and told me to do whatever i needed to do. she didn't tell me when to push, she didn't tell me where to put my legs, she didn't count, she just was there to help and to catch silas. she DID give me some local anesthesia, which i could have kissed her for, but when i really started pushing, i could feel way too much, and i felt like i was about to rip in two. i yelled that i needed more, showed her with my hand where i felt like i needed more, but she very sweetly told me she couldn't do that and that he was VERY close and that i was almost done. i pushed and roared 3 times and he was here, and i have never in my life felt relief like that. i had pushed with LM for about 90 minutes, and i knew i didn't have the energy this time around to do that, so when it only took EIGHT minutes, i was shocked and so happy. dr. B put silas on my stomach and i didn't even look at him until after i'd looked at the ceiling and shouted "thank You, Jesus!" 4 or 5 times. i wasn't thanking Him for silas as much as i was thanking Him that it was over. :)

and i was exhausted and drained and so so sore, but my sweet, handsome, precious, big baby boy was here and i was so thrilled. i thanked amazing esme and dr. B for being rock stars! they were incredible. i kissed clint and thanked him for being so awesome and knowing exactly what to do, and i put silas on my chest and kissed him over and over and started to get to know him. as much as i questioned my own judgement about skipping an epidural while i was IN labor, the high afterwards is like no other. that rush of hormones is insane, and i was thankful not to be in any sort of fog.

i loved being there when my sweet boy came into the world, and again, i'm left thinking "when do i get to do this again?"

"the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes." -psalm 118:23

wordless wednesday

2010-09-01T11:37:00.002-04:00

what's in your (diaper) bag?

2010-09-01T11:12:00.006-04:00

i love this diaper bag more than i should. i never really used one with lily mae - i always got comments from the church nursery staff about how much they appreciated how light hers was. she only needed a few diapers, some wipes, a bottle, and a paci. but i knew that with 2, i'd need a hefty bag so i could carry the stuff they both need. i was right! this bag is amazing and holds ALL of this, and sometimes a little more.

-a wet bag for dirty cloth diapers when we're out (rarely used).

-a little fabric baggie with nursing stuff - breast pads and lanolin.

PBkids pillowcases usually come in the cutest little fabric bags that can be used for all sorts of things.

-nursing strap to turn a receiving blanket into a cover.

-tiny bottle of bubbles for LM entertainment. :)

-bug repellant wipes.

-travel hairbrush for LM.

-my "purse camera."

-hair clip for LM.

-cute pouch birdie gave me that i keep gift cards/coupons in.

-my adorable wallet that can hold EVERYTHING. love it so much...my only liberty of london splurge when their stuff was at target in the spring. :)

-pull-ups and extra pair of big girl panties for LM.

-disposables for silas + an extra flip insert and cover.

-little notebook i always carry around for jotting down websites, phone numbers, book titles, ideas, etc.

-my cell phone & ipod.

-pen.

-burt's bees, lip gloss, purell.

-gum and a few starbursts.

-sunglasses.

-mylicon.

-burp cloth, extra sleeper, extra pair of socks for silas.

-little notebook and crayon tote for LM.

-keys.

-travel wipes and diaper rash cream.

-granola bar, pb crackers, fruit snacks, and fruit bar - snacks for me and LM. :)

**there's also always a bottle of water in there for me, LM's cup, and sometimes a bottle for silas. my littlest Bible is usually in there too.

i love this mighty bag!!

feel like sharing what's in yours? your diaper bag, purse, teacher's tote? :)

weekend action

2010-08-30T21:23:00.003-04:00

-we bought cupcakes at frostings for no reason at all.

-we stocked up on plenty of groceries and i made meal plans for the week.

-we strolled though stony point and i got to drool in anthro for a few minutes. only spent $24! that's called willpower, people.

-i took a glorious nap on the sofa with my scrumptious son, after falling asleep to nigella's voice. she makes me love food even more than i already do.

-ckb grilled steaks.

-giggy had an amazingly successful potty day!! i made a total fool out of myself saturday morning when she put a lot of pee pee in her potty - danced and jumped up and down and hollered, and woke up junebug who was asleep at the other end of the house. she has done a great job since! :) we're far from done, but after this weekend, i am finally seeing light at the end of the potty-training-tunnel. that process makes for very good birth control...seriously. whew.

-silas spent his first hour in church nursery, and i ached for the whole hour we were in worship. i am never ever away from that boy, and i love it that way. :)

-i nearly had a heart attack when a disgusting black mouse ran right by me in the shed as i was rooting through stuff yesterday afternoon. i'm surprised my neighbors didn't come running to see what was wrong after that screech.

-we ate at CPK. (and we thought of you the whole time, fern!) :)

-we FINALLY hung curtains in our living room after living here almost a year. i was stunned at how much cozier they make our house look, and i think it's already pretty cozy to begin with. now i'm really ready for fall!!

-i got to thrift for about 15 blessed minutes at my favorite spot.

-clint got more work done on the studio, but i fear he is beginning to think it will never get done. :( he's just a TAD bit busy with working full-time and daddying 2 littles.

-we caught up on a LOT of washing, drying, and folding after 6 days without a washing machine. i am in love with our beautiful new (to us) machine! i really detested our old one, but we asked for all our appliances as part of our offer to the previous owners, and we really thought they'd turn us down. when they didn't, we were ecstatic because they saved us at least a couple thousand bucks. so i've tried VERY hard to be grateful for that machine, but now i can say that i really hated it. i will never ever own a front-loading again. yuck. never mind the fact that the broken one is still sitting on our porch...we're embracing the white trash factor. oh well. :)

-a thoughtful friend dropped off an enormous load of clothes for silas is sizes 6 months all the way to 4T. it felt SO good to open up a tub of "new" clothes as lily mae grew, because we were very blessed with lots of generous friends who had girl clothes. i'm so happy that silas has got some friends thinking of him too.

-we welcomed bounty from grandma and grandpa's garden. they grow the yummiest tomatoes and cucumbers, both of which lily mae loves.

-we watched the emmys and rejoiced with modern family and top chef, and wondered how 24 and LOST got so robbed.

happy monday! this sweet boy wants you to have a joyful week:

new & expecting mamas!! nursing tops

2010-08-29T19:33:00.010-04:00

if you're a new mama or you've got a baby in your belly, i bet you have noticed that most nursing tops available are either a) hideous or b) super expensive or c) billboards that you're a nursing mom. i've found a few actual nursing tops and some nursing-friendly tops and i just had to share. we mamas gotta help each other out. :)

ok, these 2 are actual nursing tops from gap. i ordered them earlier this summer, and i think both aren't available anymore on gap's website, but you might be able to find them on ebay. both are cute and it isn't obvious that they're designed for nursing. i got the first one in white. i ordered the next one in purple, got it in the mail and loved it so much that when it went on sale i ordered another one in red. love them all and can't wait for fall weather now!

this next one is a top i picked up at target when silas was maybe 2 weeks old. it looked like it was nursing-friendly, and when i brought it home i found out i was right. yay! this one was super cheap so i got it in 2 colors. i've worn both a ton in the past 2 months.

and this week i got a 30% off your total purchase coupon in my email from old navy. this is another top for the fall, and the buttons are perfect for nursing. comes in tons of cute colors too.

woohoo!! i'm thankful to have a closet full of cardigans too. target has expanded their nursing tank selection a TON in the past 2 years. when LM was a baby, white and gray were available. now they have more cute colors and they've gotten more comfy in the past 2 years too. :)

have you found any cute nursing tops that won't break the bank?

marriage habits and rhythms - part 1

2010-08-23T16:45:00.005-04:00

i'm blessed to have a husband who holds our relationship up to very high standards. he's a strong leader for our family, and following his lead, with God's guidance, we've developed some habits which i believe keep us close, healthy, and very deeply in love. i want to share some of these habits and rhythms.

i feel like i need to start by saying that we do NOT have a perfect marriage, which of course is obvious, but i want to point out that i know we don't. :) i am not a perfect wife; clint isn't a perfect husband. we make big mistakes and often do a very cruddy job of showing each other our love. we can each be self-serving and we slip easily into lazy modes in which we don't put forth a lot of effort into making each other feel treasured and cared for. we are incredibly different. we come from very different families, and my parents taught me different things about marriage than clint's did. if we didn't have to meet in the middle, his and my natural preferred ways of solving problems and communicating wouldn't look a whole lot like each other.

but i also want to say that we have worked hard to place our marriage as a very high priority. because of our stage in life right now, with 2 very little ones, it often feels most natural to focus the majority of our attention on the caring and nurturing of them. but we try to combat that whenever we notice that tendency rearing its head and get back to the core of our family, which is the 2 of us. we believe and know that our children will greatly benefit from having parents who love each other very intentionally, who strive to set a good example for them to follow one day.

so because of God's instructions to us, because He's given us everything we need to follow His plan for our marriage, and because we (usually) put in the effort to have a beautiful, God-glorifying relationship, we are a strong unit. not even close to perfect, but strong and healthy and balanced. we are both working toward the same goal, and both of us clock in the work it takes for our marriage to thrive.

if you read these habits and feel discouraged because you don't think your husband would ever follow through with some of them, pray! pray for him, not that he would necessarily meet your needs for your benefit, but just pray that God would work on his heart and reveal what He'd have your husband do. pray for patience and ask the Lord to help you encourage your husband while you wait for him to obey God's plans for your marriage. i don't presume to know the trials of a wife whose husband doesn't listen to and heed God's instructions. clint isn't perfect, but he loves God and me and takes his role as a husband incredibly serious. but i do know from experience that when i submit to the Lord and allow Him to soften my heart, He reveals to me things I can appreciate about my husband. this allows me to show him encouragement, and in turn, he is a husband who is more ready to show me the love i crave.

ok, so after that LONG introduction (are you still with me?), here is our number-one habit, the one that is certainly the most crucial to us having a godly marriage. clint challenged us to do this from the very beginning, 8 years ago before we were even seriously dating.

we each have personal, intimate relationships with the Lord, and together we have a relationship with the Lord. we each seek daily to know God more, to love and serve Him. on our own, we each talk to God and spend time with Him. then together as a couple, we talk to Him and spend time with Him. our together prayer time doesn't substitute our individual prayer time, and vice-versa. but we do end every single day with God time as a couple. when we dated, clint would lead us in prayer before we'd part for the night. many nights if we weren't together in person, he would lead us in prayer over the phone. now we pray each night in bed. i know i could count on one hand the number of times we have neglected to pray in our 8 years, because we take it very seriously. some nights our efforts are pitiful and tired, but that is when we are very thankful for grace!

this habit helps us to remain focused on God as the very core of our marriage. it allows us to daily submit to and lean on Him, to be reminded of His reign in our lives. it allows us to praise Him, and to voice our needs and requests. and one thing we noticed fairly early on is that it is very hard to remain really angry with one another if we know we have to "face God" before we fall asleep. of course that is a little bit ridiculous, because God is never apart from us, and we are commanded to always be in a spirit of prayer (1 thess. 5:17), but our feeble human brains respond to the habit that way: it's just really hard to stay mad when we approach God every night together. it greatly helps the whole "don't let the sun go down" thing... :)

we've jotted down several other habits and rhythms, and we'll be sharing them one by one very soon!